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Former Prosecutor: Kim Gardner’s Top Staff Filed Dismissals Using My Name | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

April 18, 2023

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A former assistant prosecutor in St. Louis says that top staff working for St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner regularly make court filings on behalf of lower-level attorneys who have no idea what’s being filed under their name and bar number.

Natalia Ogurkiewicz, who resigned from the Circuit Attorney’s Office on Friday, says that among the filings made by executive staff are nolle prosequi filings dismissing cases without the knowledge of the staff attorney handling the case — even though the staff attorney’s signature is on the paperwork being filed.

“One of the craziest things was always that the executive staff would decide that things needed to be filed, and they would be filing it under our name without us ever knowing or allowing them to do it,” Ogurkiewicz says.

Ogurkiewicz’s allegations — shared with the RFT in an interview yesterday — could become a complication for Gardner as she seeks to head off a removal petition from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Gardner has argued that, under the law governing quo warranto actions like the one brought by Bailey, she can’t be held responsible for actions of underlings.

But Ogurkiewicz says top staffers regularly make court filings using the signatures of the other attorneys.

Ogurkiewicz cites as an example the relatively high-profile, but short-lived, case against Bianca Robinson, who in December was charged with robbery and armed criminal action for allegedly trying to carjack then-Alderman Brandon Bosley a few days before Christmas. Bosley’s Facebook livestream of the immediate aftermath of the supposed crime became a story in itself.

The Circuit Attorney’s Office filed charges against Robinson on December 23, only to drop them on January 3. The memo to dismiss the charges appeared to have been filed by Ogurkiewicz, but Ogurkiewicz says she’d been off work for the holiday week and was only vaguely aware of the case from the media.

“Somebody else issued the charges. And it was nolle’ed before I ever knew it was going to be assigned to me. So the executive staff filed the nolle under my name without me even knowing the case existed,” she says. “People started asking me questions about why I nolle’ed it. And I’m like, I don’t know anything about this case.”

She says that the office’s case management software makes it relatively easy for a member of the leadership team to draft court filings on staff attorneys’ behalf. “If I’m assigned to a case in our system, you can generate a certain kind of memo, and my e-signature will just pop up,” she says. “So they would just file those all the time without us ever actually physically being there and signing off.”

Ogurkiewicz says it is common for motions to have certain judges disqualified from cases filed in this manner, too.

“Those were being filed under the attorneys’ names who were to be assigned those cases without them ever even knowing why,” she says.

When asked why Circuit Attorney Gardner or a member of her executive team would file motions with other attorneys’ names on them, Ogurkiewicz says, “Kim can never be responsible for anything. Because in case it were to blow up…Kim’s name is on not one filing.”

Gardner maintaining a separation between herself and the attorneys on her staff has been a consistent motif in the embattled elected official’s filings in response to Bailey’s attempts to remove her through a quo warranto process.

Bailey has alleged many failings on the part of the CAO, including the office not prosecuting cases and attorneys not showing up to hearings.

Gardner has insisted in her own filings that if any mistakes were made by her office — and Gardner doesn’t concede there were any — those mistakes are the fault of staff attorneys and not her.

“If the Attorney General believes an assistant circuit attorney has … forfeited his or her office, the remedy is not to seek Ms. Gardner’s ouster, but to seek that person’s ouster,” a motion filed by Gardner last week said.

When Ogurkiewicz left the office Friday, she penned a blistering letter on the way out, calling the office’s work environment “toxic.”

She says there were many mornings when she was supposed to be in five different courtrooms, all at 9 a.m.

In theory, she says, every prosecutor’s caseload was supposed to fit within judge groups that coordinated schedules. But in practice, the scheduling system broke down as more and more attorneys left the office.

“As people left, everyone had to take on the cases of the people who were leaving,” Ogurkiewicz says. “So it ended up being a situation where all of us are assigned to every division.”

At times, she says, it was impossible to prepare for trial while at the same time “work the pager,” which means being on call to write warrant applications for violent crimes and other cases that need immediate action. She recalls that once, a week before she was supposed to start trial on a murder, new witnesses in that case came to light.

“They’re totally different from all the [previous] interviews. They’re different than the police report. Nobody had ever heard any of these names before,” Ogurkiewicz says. “During those depositions, I get a text saying, ‘You have the pager now; if you can’t do it, find coverage. Good luck.'”

Ogurkiewicz says that Gardner, for her part, was “completely inaccessible.”

“We could email her and it was a 30 percent chance you’d get a response.”

“None of these things alone make a difference,” Ogurkiewicz says. “But the totality of it was crazy.”Editor’s note: This story was amended shortly after publication to use more precise language regarding the alleged filings made by senior staffers.

We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

7 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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