ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner called the latest effort to remove her from office “frivolous,” politically-motivated and “not [for] legitimate purposes,” according to new court documents.

For the second time in as many months, Kim Gardner met a deadline Tuesday to respond to a petition from the Missouri Attorney General and refused to step down from office amid her response.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a writ of quo warranto against Kim Gardner in February, accusing her of neglecting her duties as circuit attorney. He amended his petition in late March to include additional allegations of neglect.

Bailey says his office, over the past three weeks, has interviewed multiple witnesses, reviewed court files, and analyzed more than 30,000 documents and pieces of data from the St Louis City Circuit Court and the Comptroller’s Office. He says the amended 121-page petition asserts that Gardner has knowingly and willfully failed to do her duties as a prosecutor in many ways.

Gardner denies new allegations in her court-document response and contends that Bailey’s latest petition fails to state a claim.

Pushback against Gardner stems from an incident in February, in which an out-of-town teenager suffered a life-changing injury due to a driver who was out on bond awaiting trial for armed robbery.

Janae Edmondson, 17, was visiting St. Louis with her family for a volleyball tournament. The family was walking in downtown St. Louis on Feb. 18 when a speeding driver failed to yield and collided with another vehicle. That second vehicle struck Edmondson, who has had both of her legs amputated since the crash.

The man accused in the crash, 21-year-old Daniel Riley, was out on bond from a 2020 armed robbery case. Last August, he was given a personal recognizance bond that required him to be tracked by GPS and stay at home. Court records show he violated house arrest dozens of times leading up to the crash.

Gardner’s office contends that prosecutors asked for higher bonds several times, though judges denied such requests. She noted the most recent effort to address Riley’s bond conditions came in January 2023, though says “there was no response” upon asking the court for a hearing date over Riley’s bond.