Unless you’re a resident of the St. Louis metro area, in theory, you shouldn’t know the name of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney — why would you? And yet, I suspect most readers of this article are familiar with Kim Gardner, as the city’s chief prosecutor has, unfortunately, (dis)graced the pages of this — and other national — publication(s) on multiple occasions.
When last we left our heroine, she was facing quo warranto proceedings brought by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to remove her from office following failure after failure resulting in untold damage to the community and visitors to it. (See, Missouri AG Sues to Remove Defiant St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner After She Refuses to Resign.)
Those proceedings remain pending with the next hearing on the matter set for Tuesday. (Despite a 121-page Amended Petition seeking her removal, which spans 10 counts and sets out, in great detail, the many failures of Kim Gardner’s tenure, Gardner defiantly maintains that the proceedings are a partisan power grab and the alleged failures — if any — were the result of negligence and actions by Gardner’s subordinates, rather than Gardner herself.) At that hearing, Judge John Torbitzky (who sits on the Missouri Court of Appeals – Eastern District, but was appointed to preside over this case due to the blanket recusal of all of the judges of the Circuit Court of St. Louis City) will conduct a case management conference (setting up a schedule for discovery and trial) and entertain the motions currently pending, which include Gardner’s Motion to Dismiss the Amended Petition.
With all of that in the background, on Friday, yet another prosecutor exited Gardner’s office, citing a “toxic work environment” and an “untenable” workload.
Natalia Ogurkiewicz, 27, joined the office in 2020 and had scores of murder cases and other felonies on her docket. She initially planned to leave Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office at the end of the month, but she announced Friday she was leaving early.
“As a St. Louis City resident, I have lost trust in Kim Gardner from the inside,” Ogurkiewicz wrote in her resignation letter. “I do not believe that her leadership can stop the metaphorical or physical ballistics from continuing to fly through our city.”
You’ll note I said “yet another prosecutor.”
Ogurkiewicz’s departure is the latest example of chronic staffing issues in Gardner’s office, as just five prosecutors are left to handle hundreds of the city’s most violent felonies. One of those five is on sick leave for several weeks, and another just recently began handling more serious cases.
“Chronic staffing issues” might be putting it politely.
In Gardner’s first two years in office, she had a more than 100% turnover rate for attorneys, shedding hundreds of years of experience. Critics said it resulted in serious cases getting assigned to prosecutors who didn’t have the experience or time necessary to prepare for trial.
By earlier this year, Gardner had about half as many attorneys as when she took over. Prosecutors regularly dropped and refile charges because they aren’t ready for trial, and the office has been sanctioned by judges for failing to turn over evidence to defense attorneys as required by law.
Ogurkiewicz’s letter sets out a number of concerns in addition to the critical staffing shortage.
Ogurkiewicz also questioned the office’s policies on negotiating plea agreements to dispose of cases without going to trial. She said too often “reasonable” proposals that met Gardner’s pledges to reform the criminal justice system were rejected and “branded with a scarlet letter of potential media attention.”
“I refuse to run a practice that generally prioritizes fear of negative publicity over just and reform-oriented results,” she wrote.
Ogurkiewicz’s departure follows on the heels of the resignation of Gardner’s chief trial assistant, Marvin Teer, at the end of March.
On Friday, Ogurkiewicz gave a tearful interview outside the courthouse regarding her departure.
Jury trial schedule shows ACA Natalia Ogurkiewicz was supposed to be prosecuting two first-degree murder trials and a first-degree assault case next week.
In all, she was assigned to 26 cases through the end of the year — including 9 more first-degree murder trials.— Christine Byers (@ChristineDByers) April 14, 2023
Bear in mind, too — the chronic inability of the Circuit Attorney’s Office to meet deadlines and bring serious cases to trial places the judges in the unenviable position of having to dismiss cases in order to comply with constitutional speedy trial requirements. Meanwhile, Gardner points the finger at the judges, the police, and her subordinates, while refusing to take any responsibility for the office she’s supposed to be running. Something’s gotta give here — for too long, it’s been the safety and well-being of the people of the City of St. Louis.
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