Court again declines to review Gardner disqualification

The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District again has declined to review a St. Louis judge’s order disqualifying St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from prosecuting a high-profile weapons case involving a pair of attorneys.

On Jan. 20, the court denied a petition for a writ of prohibition that Gardner filed in response to Judge Michael Stelzer’s Dec. 29 disqualification order in the case against Patricia McCloskey. 

The appellate court didn’t provide a reason for the denial, as is typical in writ cases. Gardner still can file a similar petition with the Missouri Supreme Court. 

Stelzer’s order followed an earlier Dec. 10 disqualification order by Judge Thomas C. Clark II in the case against McCloskey’s husband, Mark McCloskey. The Eastern District denied a writ in that case on Jan. 8. 

The McCloskeys are charged with unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution, stemming from a well-publicized June 28 incident in which the McCloskeys, while armed, confronted protesters outside their home in St. Louis. The McCloskeys contend they acted in self-defense.

Gardner, a Democrat and the first Black elected prosecutor in St. Louis, was re-elected in November following a contested primary in August. Her campaign sent emails days before and after the McCloskeys were charged on July 20, seeking donations and pointing to comments that Republican leaders had made criticizing Gardner’s decision to prosecute the McCloskeys.

Clark found that the conduct “raises the appearance that she initiated a criminal prosecution for political purposes.” Gardner’s office has denied any impropriety.

The case is State ex rel. Gardner v. Stelzer, ED109389.  

RELATED: Eastern District denies writ in McCloskey prosecution