Kim Gardner has perhaps not completely come to terms with the circumstances under which she left her job as St. Louis circuit attorney three years ago. At least that’s the conclusion you might draw after reviewing a deposition she gave in March, which was made public last week and represents the most extensive public commentary Gardner has made about her time as circuit attorney.
Gardner sat for the deposition in the Clayton offices of attorney Bevis Schock, as part of a lawsuit filed against her and her office by a white former employee of the Circuit Attorney’s Office who is accusing Gardner of racial discrimination. Becky Goetz claims that during a 2022 meeting about the office’s diversion program, a Black contract employee repeatedly called Goetz a “slave owner” and accused her of racism because she is white, while Gardner failed to intervene. Goetz claims in her lawsuit that when she complained about the treatment, she was fired.
Gardner resigned from office in May 2023 as she faced a quo warranto effort to remove her by the state’s attorney general, a mass exodus of staff from her office, and increasing public backlash over the mishandling of cases. The final straw came in the form of revelations that amid all this chaos, she was pursuing a graduate nursing degree from Saint Louis University…