Late on Tuesday night, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner filed her response to Attorney General Andrew Bailey where she denied his Quo Warranto. So what does her response say, and what does it mean for her going forward? KMOX Legal Analyst Brad Young joined KMOX's Total Information AM to explain.
Young explained that in her filing, Gardner is asking for the Quo Warranto to be dismissed, and points out that removal of a prosecutor by the Attorney General can only be done in cases of willful neglect, failure, or refusal of an official's duties.
"What Kim Gardner's attorney goes through in very specific detail is the two instances where this has occurred with prosecutors over 80 years ago, the only time it's ever been used for a prosecutor," Young explained. "And in the occurrences 80 years ago, there was enormous evidence of corruption and office officials taking bribes, officials getting payouts and money. And so she uses that to say there's nothing similar here."
However, Young said, the problem with the argument is that, under section 106, corruption isn't required. All that's required are willful neglect, failure, or refusal of duties — which is mostly what Bailey has alleged. But from Gardner's perspective, the argument is invalid because Bailey demonstrates that she has shown neglect, but not willful neglect.
"But failure doesn't require intent," Young pointed out. "So in that instance, if you look at strict construction — which is a legal term that's used to interpret statutes, and it's very specific here — that means the words have to be read exactly as they are as they were enacted when signed into law. Failure doesn't require intent. So when you look at that, it creates an issue."
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