Some politician in St Louis will spin this by saying, "Look, murder convictions are down in our city."
Imagine being a family member of the one of the murder victims and learning this news.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is under fire after a judge drops murder charges against an accused killer.
The unusual move came after the prosecutor from Gardner’s office, who was assigned the case, didn’t show up to court. Now the chairman of the St. Louis Aldermanic Public Safety committee wants to call Gardner in front of his committee to explain the incident.
Judge Jason Sengheiser wrote a scathing order dropping the murder charges. The accused killer, Brandon Campbell, was released from jail and is still at large.
The judge noted in his order that the prosecutor who was assigned to the case was on maternity leave for three months and said the office hadn’t replaced her.
The judge sharply criticized Gardner’s office for the mix up saying, “The Circuit Attorney’s Office has essentially abandoned its duty to prosecute those it charges with crimes.”
A spokeswoman for Kim Gardner admitted a big mistake was made saying in a statement: “Upon review of our internal policies and procedures regarding Family Medical Leave, we have determined that corrective measures are needed to further prevent any future repeat occurrence of the incident in question.”
Amazingly this wasn't even the only murder case. There were three!
Three murder cases in St. Louis were tossed out in the span of a week, including one in which prosecutors failed to appear in court three times, according to a report.
Gardner’s office also dismissed murder charges last week against Gregory Seddens, 31, whose trial in a 2018 slaying was scheduled to start this week, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Gardner addressed Campbell’s case in a statement to the newspaper Monday, but did not mention Phillips or Seddens.
Photo: Former St Louis murder suspects