In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner continued to negate the claim that her office was responsible for Daniel Riley being out on bond despite the fact that he violated the conditions of his bond on multiple occasions.
Gardner said that her office repeatedly requested for Riley's bond to be revoked,
"On three separate occasions, as recently as last month, my office requested the defendants bond be revoked. The court either denied or ignored each of these requests," she said. She pointed to instances on December 12, 2021 where her request was denied by Judge Hettenbach, as well as an instance on August 10, 2022 and one just last month.
"While it is true, my office could have done more, to say we did nothing is not only disingenuous, it is willfully ignorant of the reality of our court system," she said. "It is particularly frustrating that the willful ignorance has empowered the ongoing harassment of the hard working men and women in my office."
Gardner was asked by a reporter why her requests for bond revocation were not shown on court records. She said that she made oral motions rather than written ones.
"Those can be made orally or written and in this jurisdiction, there are made orally and that is normal practice," she said. "And that was done in this case on numerous occasions."
KMOX asked Gardner to respond to Mayor Tishaura Jones' comment that the public had lost trust in her; Gardner said she couldn't speak for the people and wouldn't address the Mayor's comments because "the people should speak for themselves."
There are some questions that are still unanswered, like whether or not there were bond revocation requests, as the 22nd Judicial Circuit has refused to release records from the initial court case. The case was dismissed because, allegedly, the Circuit Attorney's office wasn't ready and those charges were refiled. However, records that would prove this have not been released.
Copyright 2023 KMOX (Audacy). All Rights Reserved.
Follow KMOX | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Listen on the free Audacy app.
Tell your smart speaker to play K M O X.
