Judge considers booting St. Louis prosecutors from new Greitens case

A judge will consider whether or not to remove the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office from the new charge facing Governor Eric Greitens.

Both sides met in court Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue with Judge Rex Burlison. Greitens’ defense team said Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office was trying to salvage poor work done on the invasion of privacy case, particularly that of private investigator Don Tisaby, by filing a new case last Friday for felony computer tampering.

Judge Burlison did not rule on the matter on Tuesday, but did ask each side for a list of possible special prosecutors to handle the computer tampering case.

The computer tampering case came after Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office sent evidence to Gardner this month related to Greitens’ former charity, The Mission Continues. A probable cause statement said Greitens worked with someone else to obtain a list of donors to the charity, and used that list to fundraise for his 2016 campaign for governor.

Jack Garvey, an attorney for Greitens, said the mistakes Tisaby made in the invasion of privacy case, involving a picture Greitens’ allegedly took of his former mistress without her consent during a sexual encounter, “has permeated and corroded the second case.” Garvey said the attorney general’s office should also not be involved, citing Hawley’s calls for Greitens to resign.

Robert Dierker with the circuit attorney’s office said Tisaby had a minimal role in the computer tampering case. Dierker said there was no “objective basis” to prove the prosecution wouldn’t be fair to Greitens, which is necessary when disqualifying a prosecutor’s office.