St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore seeks to hire attorneys, ‘stabilize’ office
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ST. LOUIS — New St. Louis Circuit attorney Gabe Gore pledged Tuesday to fill out a staff that has been ravaged by departures, act on a “balanced” approach to public safety and catch up on a backlog of thousands of cases as his first acts as the city’s top prosecutor.
Missouri Supreme Court Justice Robin Ransom delivered Gore’s oath of office in front of a packed courtroom of elected officials, judges, attorneys and law enforcement leaders just over a week after Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, appointed him to replace Kimberly M. Gardner.
Gore inherits an office that has suffered from years of turmoil and organizational dysfunction. Gardner abruptly departed earlier this month amid a legal effort seeking her ouster and a bill from the legislature that would have stripped her of most of her power. In a two-month period, one-third of the attorneys in Gardner’s office left.
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Gore said his first goal is to get the office stabilized.
“Failure is not an option,” he said Tuesday after being sworn in.
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St. Louis Circuit attorney Gabe Gore, left, takes the oath of office as his he is sworn in by Missouri Supreme Court Judge Robin Ransom, center, while Gore’s wife Nicole Gore holds a bible during a brief ceremony in a St. Louis courtroom on Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Gore, 54, is the first Black man to serve as circuit attorney in the city. He spent years working at the high-powered and politically connected Dowd Bennett law firm, served on the Ferguson Commission following protests over the 2014 death of Michael Brown and worked as a federal prosecutor in the 1990s.
When asked to identify his philosophy on prosecutions, Gore did not take on the “progressive” label, as Gardner did, though he rebuffed the characterization that he was “tough on crime.” He said he would “look at the facts and enforce the laws as written.”
Gore said he wanted to take a “balanced approach of prevention, intervention and enforcement.”
The city, he said, is suffering a “violent crime crisis” that can be fixed only through prosecution and partnerships with regional officials, clergy, educators and social services.
“We are losing far too many young, promising lives to violence,” he said in prepared remarks. “In order to reduce that violence, it’s going to take all of us working together.”
As part of Gore’s initial focus on hiring, he said in the past week he has contacted former prosecutors who may want to return to the city, and he is working to select a leadership team. He scheduled a staff meeting with circuit attorney‘s employees for 3 p.m.
Gore has also spoken to other leaders in the region, including St. Louis County Prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell and U.S. attorney Sayler Fleming, and asked them for help taking on cases.
Bell said he planned to send “several” prosecutors to assist as needed, tapping into new hires who hadn’t yet taken on caseloads and suspending a program to establish satellite warrant offices where police can apply for charges throughout the county to provide extra help.
“We’re looking at ways where it won’t compromise our cases, but understanding that in a crisis — and we are in a crisis — we’re going to do what we can,” Bell said.
Gore will also have to work on repairing a strained relationship with city police that developed during Gardner’s tenure. One of the biggest controversies was her creation of a list of officers who would be excluded as witnesses in criminal cases because Gardner’s office found their credibility was in question.
Gore said he hadn’t seen the list of officers, but he said he would “look at each case individually, apply the law and proceed from there.”
St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy, who joined the department in January, said he had already spoken with Gore and was “looking forward” to working with him.
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