St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is blaming a staff attorney who is currently on leave for a courtroom no-show on the first day of a high-profile murder trial earlier this month — and has ordered him to appear in court later this morning.
The judge in the murder case, Scott A. Millikan, threatened to hold Gardner in criminal contempt of court — a serious finding that can include possible fines or jail time — after no one from her office showed up for the April 17 trial.
On Friday, two investigators with the Circuit Attorney’s Office showed up to assistant circuit attorney Alex Polta's house with a letter from Gardner. It ordered Polta to appear at today’s contempt hearing in Judge Millikan's courtroom.
This imbroglio, which is separate from the Missouri attorney general's effort to remove Gardner, stems from the murder trial of 18-year-old Jonathan Jones, who is accused of shooting and killing 29-year-old Brandon Scott on the Arch grounds in 2021. His trial was set to begin last Monday, April 17, but no one from the Circuit Attorney's Office appeared in court to prosecute the case.
That same day, Judge Millikan issued an order forcing Gardner to explain why she shouldn't be held in criminal contempt for the no-show.
The Jones case had been assigned to Polta when Jones was indicted in October 2022. In response to Millikan, Gardner responded in court last week, "[T]he CAO and Ms. Gardner believe that no one appeared for trial because, with the potential exception of Mr. Polta, no one in the CAO was aware" that the case was still set for trial that morning.
Gardner's court filings include copies of emails between Polta and Gardner as well as texts between Polta and the CAO’s chief warrant officer, Christopher Hinckley. The communications, Gardner argues, show that Polta incorrectly told the office that he had no trials pending when he went on leave in early April.
On April 6, Polta texted Hinckley that he was taking a month of vacation. "I have been ill for 5 months," the text reads. "This is necessary to continued function [sic]."
Hinckley replied, "Be/get well."
On Friday, Gardner’s filing in the contempt matter argues, "Ms. Gardner took reasonable steps to ensure that the CAO was covering all matters — including all trial settings — prior to the missed trial setting."
Specifically, the filing says that Gardner sent an email to her staff attorneys on March 31 asking them to inform her of cases set for trial. Polta responded promptly, indicating that his trials had all been continued, according to Gardner’s filing.
Friday's filing references April 6 texts from Polta to Hinckley, saying that Polta indicated "he had no trials or substantive matters set during the period he expected to be out."
Later in the text exchange, the filing notes, Polta wrote, “Kims conduct at the end of last week is fairly indefensible [sic].”
It’s not clear what conduct Polta was referring to. That same day, according to the filing, Polta wrote to Hinckley, referring to Gardner, “I half expect her to be in jail before my vacation ends.”
At one point in the exchange, Hinckley did ask Polta if the Jones case was likely to be "called out," but Polta never responded to Hinckley with any information about it.
For years, the Circuit Attorney's Office has faced high staff turnover, which attorneys who have recently left attribute to a “toxic” work environment. Former Assistant Circuit Attorney Natalia Ogurkiewicz departed the office April 14, saying in a blistering resignation letter that lawyers who spoke up about the untenable workload were chastised for doing so.
Gardner says in the court filing in the contempt case that she instructed Polta to appear personally at today’s hearing. The RFT obtained a copy of the letter, hand-delivered to Polta's house by CAO investigators and signed by Gardner. It instructs Polta to appear, despite him previously telling Hinckley that he’d be on leave throughout April.
Polta has worked in Gardner's office for six years. He was the subject of an April 13 KSDK article which claimed he was mulling a run for Gardner's job in 2024.
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