Governor Mike Parson met with staff from the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office this morning.
The meeting lasted about 50 minutes. The governor left about halfway through, after making remarks and taking questions.
While Kim Gardner’s abrupt resignation yesterday left confusion swirling over who was actually in charge of the Circuit Attorney’s Office, Parson has made clear that for now it’s an assistant attorney general and not St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, whom Gardner had sought to manage the transition.
Despite the potential for a power struggle, with a Republicans administration taking interim power in a deep-blue city, one attendee described the meeting as mellow and calm, as Parson echoed what he told the media yesterday about being in “assist mode.” None of the questions from staff was hostile, the attendee said.
The closed door meeting, which started around 10:15 a.m. and included most of the circuit attorney’s staff, occurred against the backdrop of personnel from Jefferson City showing up at the St. Louis Circuit Court.
“There’s a swarm of assistant attorneys general,” says criminal defense attorney Terry Niehoff, who had just left a hearing in which an assistant attorney general was seated at the prosecutor's table. “They’re looking over everyone’s shoulder.”
Yesterday evening, Parson appointed his general counsel Evan Rodriguez to serve as Circuit Attorney until Parson’s replacement for Gardner can take the helm. Parson said that announcement will happen by Friday.
Retired Judge William Corrigan, who is now with the Missouri attorney general’s office, is serving as Rodriguez’s second in command, Corrigan said.
Corrigan tells the RFT that there are about five individuals in addition to Rodriguez on loan to the Circuit Attorney’s Office from Jefferson City, mostly attorneys but also an investigator. He said that some former prosecutors will be returning to the office as well.
A source familiar with the ongoing search for the next circuit attorney says that the pool of candidates has been narrowed down to six, with current St. Louis Circuit Court judges David Mason and Michael Noble still in the running.
Matthew Mahaffey, with the state's public defender office, had frequently chafed at the way prosecutors under Gardner failed to turn over evidence in a timely way, leaving clients to languish in jail for months, and even years, before their day in court. He says he's cautiously optimistic about the changes in the offing.
Whoever the next circuit attorney is, he says he hopes they offer greater accessibility. He says staff additions will likely make things better in the short term.
"In order for cases to move, information has to be given in a timely manner," he says. "More people means that there will be more people to do the work that's necessary to get us the information that we are required to get under the law in a speedy manner."
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