ST. LOUIS – After months of delays and 10 subpoenas, former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner finally met with the Missouri State Auditor’s Office earlier this week.
Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick announced last month that his office repeatedly tried to contact Gardner to complete an audit of the circuit attorney’s office under her leadership.
Fitzpatrick told FOX 2 that his office is analyzing the information Gardner provided during Wednesday’s interview and plans to issue a report to the public this fall.
“We want to make sure everything we do is completely objective, and above board, and that everybody is given a fair opportunity weigh-in, which is one of the main reasons we wanted to make sure Kim Gardner spoke with us,” said Fitzpatrick in a virtual interview on Friday. “We wanted to give her a fair opportunity to answer many questions that we had for her before the audit report was drafted without the benefit of her testimony.”
Fitzpatrick said his predecessor, Democrat Nicole Galloway, first sought records from Gardner’s office in 2021 when the St. Louis Board of Aldermen requested a citywide audit. He said he served one subpoena on Gardner last year that resulted in some requested documents but not others to complete the audit.
Gardner, a Democrat, stepped down last May as the city’s chief prosecutor after several legal battles and calls to resign. She faces frequent criticism by Republican leaders, who have cited low rates of convictions for violent crimes and high office turnover. Gardner was first elected in 2016, becoming the city’s first Black circuit attorney.
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