When Kim Gardner announced that she was resigning as Circuit Attorney she set a date of June 1 for her exit from office. Attorney General Andrew Bailey replied that June 1 wasn’t soon enough and said he would continue to pursue her ouster in court until she was gone. In fact, there was supposed to be a hearing in the AG’s case against Gardner today. It was set to be held before a new judge that Gardner had requested prior to her resignation announcement.

Tuesday, a new judge assigned to the case per her request will have his first chance to preside over the matter in a hearing he scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Anything is possible.

Judge Thomas Chapman could issue rulings from the bench on the multiple motions before him – including Bailey’s demand to remove her from office immediately.

He could also grant Gardner’s recent motions seeking thousands of pages in discovery from Bailey and his office related to everything from employee performance and class work to correspondence about a case in which Gardner led an effort to free a man from prison.

But late this morning, just a couple hours before that hearing was to take place, Gardner’s office tweeted out a statement saying she would resign immediately. “Effective immediately, Kimberly M. Gardner will end her service as the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney.”

pic.twitter.com/9L39Ymbk5E

— Circuit Attorney (@stlcao) May 16, 2023

It’s not exactly clear what changed Gardner’s mind but you may recall that Gardner recently got in trouble for failing to appear at a couple of pre-scheduled court dates. Two different judges were upset with her and one held a hearing to determine whether or not she would be held in contempt. Gardner herself didn’t appear at that hearing and yesterday we learned that’s because she was busy with her nursing pursuits.

In April, the circuit attorney’s office missed two hearings connected to the case of a shooting of an 11-year-old girl. On April 27, Judge Michael Nobel ruled that there was enough evidence to potentially hold Gardner and one of her assistants in contempt. Gardner did not attend the contempt hearing.

In a court filing Monday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey claimed that on the day of the contempt hearing, Gardner was doing clinic work for her nursing degree. The document states that “Gardner apparently spent the morning and early afternoon hours completing clinic work in pursuit of her nursing degree. Gardner did not personally appear at the show cause hearing that day, and the circuit court concluded that Gardner’s office ‘appear[ed] to be a rudderless ship of chaos.’”

I’m guessing the judge in that hearing would have been understanding if Gardner couldn’t appear because she was busy with other cases. I doubt he’d have been very forgiving once he learned she was busy at her side-gig.

Finally, you may have noticed that Gardner’s resignation mentions a transition plan that involves fellow progressive prosecutor Wesley Bell. But according to Bell, her announcement today was a surprise.

In a statement outlining her resignation, Gardner cited a “comprehensive transition plan” between Gardner and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.

But she had not told Bell she planned to resign on Tuesday, said Bell’s spokesman, Chris King, and the announcement came as a “surprise.”

“Her unexpected resignation has put us in kind of a gray area,” he said.

In order to take over the office or appoint attorneys to handle cases, Bell needs the permission of either the governor or the city’s presiding judge, King said. He was still seeking that permission as of 1:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Legally, Gardner doesn’t have the power to hand over her work to a successor. Bell is correct that he can’t just assume her duties based on an agreement he made with her. Gov. Mike Parson is holding a press conference this afternoon to discuss the next steps.

We asked the Governor if St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Wesley Bell would take over as he walked in and just now as he left. The Governor would not comment and told us to wait for his press conference at 3:30 today @kmov

— Susan El Khoury (@SusanElKhoury) May 16, 2023

There’s video of Gov. Parson’s statement to the media but something went wrong with the audio so it’s very hard to hear. The gist of it seems to be that he’ll be selecting someone to rebuild the office soon but he doesn’t know who that will be yet.