ST. LOUIS — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has appointed his general counsel Evan Rodriguez as an acting interim St. Louis Circuit Attorney, and has tapped the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to assist him during the next few days as the governor finishes interviewing candidates to serve as his permanent appointee.
The complicated structure developed late Tuesday, just hours after Kim Gardner abruptly announced her immediate resignation.
Rodriguez, 28, was sworn in Tuesday night, and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has appointed Deputy Attorney General Bill Corrigan to assist Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, Parson's senior staff on Tuesday interviewed five of the 18 people who applied for the appointment. Parson is expected to interview three of those candidates Wednesday and make an announcement on his pick Friday.
The goal is to have the appointee in place as soon as possible, according to the governor’s office.
But because Gardner’s original resignation date was scheduled for June 1, it’s possible the appointee might not be available to start Monday, so Rodriguez and the Attorney General’s Office could oversee the office until then, according to the governor’s office.
Bailey told 5 On Your Side he hopes his staff will make issuing warrants a priority along with reviewing the thousands of cases that have not been issued during the past three years. He also said the controversial exclusion list Gardner implemented that banned police officers from bringing cases to her office or serving as witnesses essentially no longer exists.
Gardner never revealed the names of the officers on the list or her reasons for putting them on it.
“The Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have an exclusion list,” he said.
Rodriguez was appointed as Parson's general counsel in March.
"Evan is a talented young attorney who has proven himself time and time again. From his expert legal mind, strong work ethic and passion for public service, we are confident in his ability to lead.
"Evan has become a true asset to our office, and we know he will continue to serve the people of Missouri with honor and respect—just as he has done since they day he joined our team," Parson said earlier this year.
Rodriguez initially joined the office as deputy general counsel in April 2021.
He has also served as a legislative analyst for the Missouri House of Representatives and as an assistant attorney general for the Missouri Attorney General's Office.
Here is some of the Q&A with Bailey.
Q: Will there be any personnel changes right off the bat?
Bailey: We're going to move in and assist whatever apparatus remains of the circuit attorney's office and provide some kind of order and structure to that under Judge Corgan's leadership. And we've got attorneys on the ground now ready to assist in that endeavor to ensure that public safety is respected and protected over the next 48 hours. The statute provides that the governor can appoint the attorney general to assist a prosecutor or circuit attorney. And that's what we're doing in this instance. We're moving in to assist that office to ensure public safety in the short term, until such time as the governor makes an appointment to backfill based on the resignation of the circuit attorney.
Q: What are some of the things that you want to add about all that's developed today? Certainly when you woke up this morning, you didn't expect to be managing the circuit attorney's office by the end of the day.
A: Public safety has been a priority of mine since I took office on January 3rd. And certainly we were in office less than 60 days. And we're ready to move forward with one of the most important pieces of litigation in this state in at least a generation, and that was to remove the circuit attorney who was unlawfully refusing to do her job. We know that in 96% of crimes reported in the city of St. Louis, she wouldn't file charges on those. So she was unlawfully refusing to do her job. What would be exposed over the last two weeks is because she was doing something else on the very day she was supposed to be at a show cause hearing for missing a trial of a violent offender. It's because she was at school taking nursing classes instead. So it's important to hold her accountable and restore confidence in the criminal justice system. Today is a major win for the people of the City of Saint Louis in this entire region to restore the rule of law and find justice for victims. And we're never going to stop fighting to achieve that objective. And we want whoever the governor appoints to be successful and have assets ready in place now to assist with that.
Q: As far as how much staff and logistics goes into the next 48 hours here for you, do you have a sense of how many attorneys you're going to send in or what's this going to all look like?
A: Well, there are five attorneys on the ground now ready to assist. And certainly we intend to man the warrant lines 24/7. So as the police officers are catching violent offenders and need warrants, we'll stand ready to process that information and provide the police officers with the support they need and deserve to make our streets safe again.
Q: What about the trials assigned to prosecutors who no longer work there?
A: We certainly need to get a handle on the trial docket and look at all the cases that are set for jury trial in the next in the coming days and weeks. And at the end of the day, make sure that there are appropriate staff members in place to handle those trials. You know, that's probably a longer term project that whoever the governor appoints to the office is going to need to make a priority. And we will be ready to assist them in that endeavor.
Q: Are you prepared to keep your staff in place until such time as that new interim no longer needs their assistance?
A: It's going to be up to whoever the governor appoints. And look, there are regional leaders across the state and certainly in the St. Louis area that have stepped up and offered to expressed a willingness to support and offer resources. There are resources available at the state level at the attorney general's office. There are private attorneys as well who have said, ‘Hey, we will take cases, we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the rule of law is restored, public safety is protected, and we're finding justice for victims.’ So there are ample resources available. And I think it's an all-hands-on-deck approach. I mean, folks want to see whoever the governor appoints be successful. And certainly we will provide sufficient assets to make sure that happens.
Q: What do you make of all this discussion that went on with Wesley Bell's office and the effort to have him take over?
A: I think Prosecutor Bell stands with the other prosecutors who have assets that are out there willing to deploy in the fight against violent crime. And again, it's going to take a regional approach. So I'm glad that there are folks willing to step in and help. Certainly, we're going to stand in the gap until the governor makes his appointment. Then we'll ensure there's an orderly transition. And I'm glad to see that there are resources available regionally to assist with that.
Q: You say you’re not giving up fighting to hold Gardner accountable, how do you continue then, in your quest to hold her accountable if this whole quo warranto process is now moot? What can be done to address the fact that she was taking nursing classes when she was supposed to be serving as the circuit attorney?
A: Well, we're going to continue to look at that. We're going to use every legal mechanism we have at our disposal to explain what happened here, what went wrong, and what needs to take place to prevent it from ever happening again. The status quo is not going to cut it any longer. In St. Louis, we've got to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system in our men and women in law enforcement, work hard every day and put their lives on the line to keep our streets safe. And we need to take seriously the work that they do, support them. And the best way prosecutors can do that is by filing the cases they bring to them that have merit. And certainly we're going to that's exactly what we're going to do, is we stand in the gap.
Q: Is the exclusion list gone?
A: The attorney general's office has no exclusion list. We're going to partner with law enforcement to make sure we're charging the cases they bring. Prosecutorial discretion is not authority to nullify the law. The prosecutor doesn't get to run the police department. That's what the police chief is for. The prosecutorial discretion exists in order to determine if the police report support a charge, what the charge should be, and ultimately what the disposition of the case should be. So we're going to partner with the men and women in law enforcement, bring respect and honor to the work that they do, respect and honor the work that they bring us by filing the cases appropriately and seeing that wrongdoers are held accountable.
Q: It doesn't seem like this is the end of your sort of mission to hold her accountable either, even though the quo warranto is likely going to end. It sounds like there's more to come.
A: Absolutely. Like I said, we're going to take a look at everything that's happened, all the evidence that we have, the evidence that may still exist out there and look at all of it, analyze it in context and determine what went wrong and what systems need to be put in place to prevent it from ever happening again. And that's going to take some time. I mean, we've got to take a hard look at this and understand what went wrong. But certainly there's ample evidence out there of her unlawful unwillingness to do her job. And so at the end of the day, her priority was elsewhere. She didn't want the job. She wanted to do something else. Instead, it was on taxpayer time. And so there has to be a remedy for that.
Q: Is there any message you have tonight for all of the crime victims that you have cited in your numerous motions and filings as examples of Gardner failing to fulfill her duty?
A: Yeah, my heart goes out to all the victims of crime in the City of St. Louis and across the region who have not been able to see justice because of the circuit attorney's unlawful refusal to do her job. And I promise you that while we're there over the next few days, we are going to do our best to respect what you've been through and to restore credibility to the criminal justice system. I'm confident in whoever the governor appoints will have that same objective and will be standing there ready to hold wrongdoers accountable and find justice for victims.