ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - More criticism of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is coming out. A former attorney that worked in her office and an opposing defense attorney spoke about the problems they've witnessed that they say have been caused by her office.
High profile defense attorney Scott Rosenblum says with Gardner, the city has an absentee prosecutor which slows the system almost to a halt.
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"You have no one to talk to, you can't get discovery, you can't educate your client on what they're charged with," Rosenblum says. "There's delays before they get it to the grand jury."
He says he's had homicide cases where he's on his fourth lawyer, which can lead to the process starting over or cases being dismissed. In some case, Rosenblum says the case is dismissed with prejudice, which means it cannot be re-filed.
Attorney Patrick Hamacher used to work for Gardner and described a bit of what the office was like, saying she shared her progressive views on prosecuting criminals.
"It's called absence," Hamacher says, as a guest of the Mark Reardon Show on 97.1 FM Talk. "At one point that office used to be staffed by 60-plus prosecutors. My understanding is that we're looking at half that. You also have big supervisor roles that haven't been fulfilled in a long time. There's not a head of violent crimes. There's not a chief trial, whose position generally is to manage the prosecutors. There's not a head of general felonies in that office. There is just an absence of supervision in that office. An absence of experience. An absence of attorneys."
Hamacher was an assistant circuit attorney when he ran for the office in 2016, and lost to State Representative Gardner. He was okay with that since they both supported criminal justice reforms, but says his heart breaks now for the victims of violent crimes whose families are not getting the justice they deserve.
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"Additionally, when you look at her policies, when it comes to progressive prosecution, we are not seeing any implementation of that either," Hamacher says.
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