Judge Michael Noble Was Not Having It with Kim Gardner Today

This afternoon a judge in St. Louis Circuit Court said that Kim Gardner was the captain of a “rudderless ship of chaos” and that there was sufficient reason to find the circuit attorney in indirect criminal contempt of court, a matter that required the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Gardner was not present in the courtroom of Judge Michael Noble's this afternoon, but her personal attorney was, as were two assistant circuit attorneys from her office.

Judge Noble took them all to task for the CAO's handling of the case of 26-year-old Steven Linell Vincent Jr., who is accused of shooting an 11-year-old girl in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood in October 2020. On two occasions this month, the prosecutor assigned to the case, Chris Desilets, failed to show up in court — on April 10 in what was supposed to be the first day of a jury trial and on April 24 for a status conference.

Judge Noble's ordered either Gardner herself or a designee to appear in his court today. Assistant Circuit Attorney Rob Huq was there in the role as Gardner's designee.

However, when questioned by Judge Noble, Huq knew little about the Vincent case, saying that he hadn't read the indictment or the probable cause statement. He didn't know if the victim or her family were in court or if the Circuit Attorney’s Office had been in contact with them. He was also unaware of any efforts to investigate Desilets' failure to show up on April 10 and 24.
Later, Gardner's attorney Michael Downey offered to provide information about the Circuit Attorney’s investigation into their handling of the case, but Judge Noble didn't want to hear any of it from him.

"I'd rather hear from Ms. Gardner's designee. The order was for Ms. Gardner or the designee, not for counsel," Noble said.

The judge added, "I asked for a designee but you sent someone who didn't have the ability to stand in Ms. Gardner's shoes."

Speaking with Desilets directly, Noble didn't take the no shows lightly, taking the tone of an exasperated father talking to a wayward teen.


Desilets said that he wasn't in court on April 10 because he injured his knee and on April 24 he was in a different judge's courtroom.

On April 10, the day the trial was supposed to begin at 9 a.m., another assistant circuit attorney told Judge Noble that Desilets wasn’t in court because he was on his way to the doctor's office to deal with the knee injury.


Judge Noble asked Desilets where he was on April 10 at 9 a.m.

Desilets said he was at home.

At 9:39 a.m.? Judge Noble asked.

Desilets answered he was also at home.

"Mr. Desilets, we've been working together a long time," Noble said. "This isn't the first time you've been late to [court]."

"Every lawyer is late to a division every day, unless he's unemployed," Desilets replied.
Judge Noble asked Desilets if he'd like to qualify the comment. "When you say 'every lawyer,' are you referring to the entire Missouri bar?"

Desilets told Judge Noble that on April 24 he was in a different judge's courtroom tending to cases there.

"It's fair to say we've made numerous accommodations in the past," Noble said. "Can you tell me tell me why you wouldn't have called and informed the court in this particular case? Do you have any justification for not doing so?"


After hearing from all three attorneys, Judge Noble called a ten minute recess.

When he returned to the bench he read aloud an order saying in part that the Circuit Attorney's conduct in the case showed "sufficient evidence of disdain and disrespect for the judicial process to determine that both Ms. Gardner and Mr. Desilets' conduct support a finding of indirect criminal contempt."

He went on to say that allowing such conduct to continue would render the court's orders ineffective and undermine the judicial process.

The order also noted that Desilets' case load includes approximately 104 felony cases and that any "prudent practitioner" should be able to see that such a caseload would create "countless irreconcilable" scheduling conflicts.

"Ms. Gardner has counsel. Mr. Desilets has the right to retain counsel. Both will be afforded their due process rights to discovery and to prepare a defense," Noble read.


Noble said he would hire a special prosecutor and set the contempt matter for a hearing on May 30 at 9:30 a.m.

Outside the court, Cassandra Hopkins, the mother of Vincent Jr., the defendant in the underlying case, maintained her son's innocence and had harsh words for what she saw as Gardner's office dragging out the legal process.

"The judge sounded pretty good to me because we keep coming to court and the prosecuting attorney isn't here," Hopkins said. "[The trial] should be over with. It's been too long."

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