ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - After months of failed attempts to call, track down, or serve Kim Gardner a subpoena, investigators with the Missouri State Auditor's Office were finally able to get her to come in for an interview. How did things all come together?
State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick tells KMOX they finally found success after they subpoenaed St. Louis University, asking for records of Gardner's time there working on a nursing degree while simultaneously serving as the St. Louis Circuit Attorney.
"As a part of that process I believe that SLU was able to contact her and let her know about that subpoena incase she was going to object to it" said Fitzpatrick.
That when they received a call from an attorney who represented Gardner.
"An attorney representing her did reach out to us with concerns about that subpoena and through that conversation we were able to confirm that the attorney did in fact represent her." said Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick says they then served the attorney himself.
"The attorney was able to confirm that he had accepted service and we were able to schedule the interview for Wednesday." said Fitzpatrick.
The auditor's staff did not ask where Gardner was or if she was avoiding them. The auditor says their subpoena included the Wednesday meeting with Gardner, who cooperated and showed up.
"She appeared as agreed. The date that was included in the subpoena was fixed and the location was fix. They accepted service, they appeared."
Fitzpatrick says the former St. Louis Circuit Attorney was also cooperative during their interview.
"The report that I got from the audit staff was that she did answer their questions. There was no pleading of the fifth that took place. There may have been some questions where the answers were, 'I don't know' but I think for the most part the auditors seemed satisfied." said Fitzpatrick.
The interview with Gardner lasted three hours. We asked the auditor what was specifically discussed during the interview but he declined.
"I don't want to get out in front of the audit report and talk about any of the details." said Fitzpatrick.
Although he couldn't share the details of the interview, he has previously told KMOX some of the questions he had for Gardner were about decisions she made as Circuit Attorney and potentially improper expenditures. He couldn't rule out criminal charges resulting from the audit report.
"Spending decision that were not appropriate or that were in violation potentially of the city ordinance but to the extent that those occurred and whether or not they were criminal in nature and if a prosecutor would charge those would be something that I can't really talk about yet." said Fitzpatrick
So when will the audit be released? Auditor Fitzpatrick says we can expect it sometime this fall.
"The report drafting process is a pretty lengthy process. It involves several layers of review from the audit manager, the audit director and ultimately, myself." said Fitzpatrick.
Auditor Fitzpatrick acknowledges the attention this audit has received but says he wants to be fair to Gardner.
Obviously this is a very high profile situation and a high profile audit. Kim is going to receive the same level of respect and the same level of review, in terms of the audit work that we're doing, as anybody else would."
He adds they want to make sure all their findings are presentable and backed by facts before releasing the report.