Remember when Kim Gardner got into all kinds of hot water for refusing, in a truly memorable combination of incompetence and dishonesty, to provide various items of discovery to the Greitens’ defense team? Well, she’s at it again.
As it turns out, some time ago Judge McGraugh ruled against Kim Gardner and the CAO in a “Sunshine Law” request case, imposed a $5,000 penalty, and ordered her to pay the attorney fees of the plaintiff.
To put it in context, all this revolves around the CAO not filing an answer to a petition requesting that the court order the CAO and Kim Gardner to turn over various materials pertaining to the Greitens case (after that case had been dismissed). Specifically, the request asked for materials that might shed light on whether the prosecution of Greitens was politically motivated.
The CAO had not responded to the initial Sunshine request, and subsequently a lawsuit was filed asking the courts to order her to follow the law. In keeping with the tradition of the CAO, no response was filed to the lawsuit. The court (Judge McGraugh) then gave the CAO extra time to file an answer, but they still filed nothing. They could have answered the petition and avoided the default by simply writing “plaintiff is not entitled to the requested materials as they pertain to a closed file” on a blank memo and filing it with the court. But, they did nothing. In civil cases, if you don’t file an answer, the plaintiff will get a default judgment. And, that’s exactly what happened.
The CAO responded by asking Judge McGraugh to set aside the default judgment. Courts will do that when the default is caused by some sort of good-faith mistake. In this instance, however, Judge McGraugh found there was no such mistake: it was, in his words, a “reckless, dilatory, and intentional refusal to timely file a responsive pleading.” Gardner was ordered to turn over the requested materials.
You’re not thinking she turned them over, are you? Not so fast, Sonny Jim. She chose to appeal the court’s ruling and order in an attempt to avoid having to surrender potentially career-damaging materials.
As her office had proved itself unable to successfully handle this simple civil matter in the first place, she ultimately decided to not to try do the appeal in-house. Instead, she hired an outside, high-powered, Clayton-based law firm, Capes Sokol, to work to get her out of the mess that she created. Sometimes, though, you are in too deep to be saved.
The Missouri Court of Appeals just decided that “the trial court did not err in finding (Gardner’s) failure to file a timely response to (plaintiff’s) amended petition was not the result of an unexpected or unavoidable hindrance, accident, or mishap, but was instead the result of (Gardner’s) carelessness, inattention, and deliberate disregard.” The Court of Appeals went to far as to say that Gardner’s appeal had “no merit.” Slap.
They too ordered Kim Gardner to turn over the requested materials.
You’re not thinking she is going to turn them over, are you?
“We are disappointed with the Court’s decision, and intend to investigate and pursue the Office’s right to have the decision reviewed.” Yup, that’s right — another appeal.
I don’t know if we will ever get to see these materials or get a glimpse “behind the curtain.” Regardless, what I find significant is that Kim Gardner created this whole mess through her incompetence and her incompetence continues to drive it forward.