ST. LOUIS – Following Kim Gardner’s resignation as Circuit Attorney, some crime victims are no less worried about their cases.
Critical court hearings and high-profile murder trials are scheduled even starting Friday, in which the prosecutor assigned to the case no longer works for the Circuit Attorney’s Office.
The Scott family has been attending hearings for years for two alleged killers of their loved one, Brandon Scott. Both cases are assigned to prosecutors who have recently quit.
April Scott never expected the Circuit Attorney to also resign.
“I just feel like that’s a coward move of hers, honestly, on behalf of her character, taking the fact she has not taken any accountability for her actions,” she said.
April said her brother was shot to death after a case of road rage that ended on the arch grounds in 2021. She said Gardner’s resignation announcement was yet another surprise.
“We are totally in awe,” she said. “We just don’t know what to do, where to go from here. No one has reached out to us yet again.”
April said she’s concerned a prosecutor will fail to show up at the next hearing this month.
When asked how the cases are going to be covered now that Gardner has resigned, Diversion Manager Khatib Waheed for the Circuit Attorney’s Office said, “Well, let me say this: one of the things that we need to do to assure that is for you all to be more objective in your reporting.”
Then a woman, who said she represented imprisoned victims, called Waheed out. She said she’s failed to get answers for months. He walked away, saying, “Don’t ask me a question.” Another employee appeared to try to escort him further away as the woman shouted, “You guys are giving people false hope, that they’re going to get out of jail, or they have an application for it, but you don’t have the funding for it, so where’s all the funding?”
She explained to FOX 2 later, saying, “This is about the prisoners of the Missouri Department of Corrections, who have submitted applications thinking that their cases are going to be looked into. This is what the office has said.”
The woman said she’s found no evidence the office is reviewing the applications. April holds out hope that it could get better.
“With things changing, good can always come from it, so I’m always going to stay positive and optimistic with anything and try not to be discouraged,” April said.
FOX 2 had identified a criminal hearing first thing Friday morning involving an accused murderer who’s been in jail for three years awaiting trial. The assigned prosecutor no longer works for the Circuit Attorney’s Office. We’ll be here to see what happens.
