St. Louis’ new circuit attorney, Gabe Gore, sat down with the St. Louis American for a wide-ranging conversation about his new job, his new hires, his rebuilding the CAO and how he plans to dig out from a backlog of unattended cases.
St. Louis’ new circuit attorney, Gabe Gore, sat down with the St. Louis American for a wide-ranging conversation about his new job, his new hires, his rebuilding the CAO and how he plans to dig out from a backlog of unattended cases.
Gore also shared his thoughts on relations between Black people and the police after Mike Brown’s death in 2014. He discussed whether he will or won’t use Gardner’s exclusionary list of more than 75 police officers that she didn’t trust as witnesses.
Gore came to the city from Detroit at the age of 14 when his father was promoted to supervisor at the Chrysler plant in Fenton. His parents and five siblings moved to Ballwin in the 1980s where he attended Parkway South High School. It was a culture shock in many ways. Gore studied pre-law at Missouri State University and went on to the University of Chicago for law school.
Surprised that he missed St. Louis, Gore came back to his adopted home and spent more than a decade building a promising career with several high-profile law firms, including the powerful Dowd/Bennett firm that defended former Governor Eric Greitens against charges brought against him by former Kimberly M. Gardner in 2018.
So far, Gore has received praise for quickly filling vacancies that, according to media accounts, have decreased by about two-thirds under Gardner’s six-year run. In all, Gore has recruited ten attorneys since May 30 when he took office. Four other experienced prosecutors are on loan from neighboring law firms.
Gore recently announced he was withdrawing Gardner’s motion to overturn the conviction of Christopher Dunn who has spent 33 years in prison for a 1990 shooting incident that resulted in an individual’s death. Dunn has maintained his innocence. After her review of the case, Gardner said there was clear and convincing evidence that showed Dunn had been wrongly convicted.
It’s abundantly clear that Gore is nothing like Gardner, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unlike Gardner, Gore has made no public declarations about tackling racial injustice, investigating police shootings, or enacting policies to address racial disparities within the criminal justice system. He is more measured, more diplomatic, and more fact-based when speaking about those issues.
Gabe Gore knows he’s under the media and public spotlight. He said his only desire is that he be judged based on “how I perform this job.”
American: You knew there were many challenges in taking over the circuit attorney’s office, yet you said: ‘Saying something is going to be hard makes it kind of interesting to me.’ Do you still feel that way?
Gabe Gore: Yes, I still feel that way. I like to be challenged and this job has certainly been that in the first two weeks. This is something that is challenging but that’s just a reflection of the importance to the community that we restore this office.
American: Are you seeing a pathway forward on clearing the backlog of cases left by your predecessor?
GG: I see a path forward to the extent that we’ve been able to add good people to the office. In any law office, the most critical element is the quality of the attorneys. The path forward is through the great attorneys we’ve added.
American: You lured Atty. Marvin Teer back to the office. Why was that hire important to you?
GG: Yes, he was my first hire, and it was an important hire. He is going to be key in leading us through this process of rebuilding the office and working our way through the backlog. I’ve known Marvin for many years. He was a prosecutor in this office when I was a prosecutor in the US Attorney’s office, and we interacted then. I’ve known Marvin as a great public servant throughout his career.
American: Much of your predecessor’s popularity was based on her promises to tackle racial injustice issues, investigate police shootings, and enact policies to address racial disparities within the criminal justice system. Where are you on those issues?
GG: I am coming in facing a situation where we have an office that’s not performing at an acceptable level. So, my initial focus must be on restoring this office to performing at a level where we’re doing the very basic work that the community relies on us to do.
The issues of combating racial injustices and addressing institutional racism and that kind of thing; that’s important, obviously, but I do believe the first step in doing that is to do your work well.
American: Have you given any thought to Gardner’s exclusionary list of more than 75 police officers she accused of lying, abuse or corruption? What’s your stand on the continued use of that list?
GG: Where I am is this; I am not adopting it; I’m not in any way applying that list; I don’t know the thought process or approach that was taken in developing it so it’s not something I have any basis to rely on.
I’m going to proceed on a case-by-case basis; we’re going to look at it and determine what the facts are and what the law is; if there are any issues with respect to witness credibility-whether it be police or any other witnesses-we’re going to look at that very seriously and determine whether or not we can proceed to prove up our case and rely on some of the witness testimony.
American:. Did you play a role in Greitens’ defense team?
GG: I played no role in the Greitens’ case. He was represented by my law firm and members of our law firm, but I personally was not involved in that case.
American: Earlier this month, you filed a motion to withdraw your predecessor’s request to vacate Christopher Dunn’s murder conviction. At the time you said you planned to conduct a full review of the case.
GG: As I reviewed the motion to vacate the conviction, it became very clear to me that that was a motion by the prosecuting attorney to set aside a conviction because that prosecuting attorney had concluded there’s clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence. Ms. Gardner filed that motion a few days before she resigned and when she filed it, she was essentially representing to the court and certifying that ‘I (she) had reached these conclusions.’
For something like that to go forward, it would require me to basically make the same representations to the court. That’s something I could not do without conducting a full review. So it was procedurally necessary that I withdraw the motion and I am now duty-bound to review it, make a conclusion and determine whether refiling the motion is the proper thing to do.
American: I know it’s way too early to ask, but you said you’re not focusing on running for the CAO position in 2024. Has that decision changed since then?
GG: No. I really have not had time to do that. It takes a lot of time to hire 10 attorneys in 15 days (laughs)..that was really time-consuming as well as all the other things so, no, I really haven’t had a chance to think about it.
American: Last question: There are still a lot of people who really liked Kim Gardner and her reform policies. What’s your message to those people who may look at you with trepidation?
GG: My message would be ‘judge me based on how I perform this job and how I conduct myself.’ My focus is on getting this office back to where it’s well-functioning, fulfilling its necessary role in the criminal justice system here in St. Louis and doing so in a way that is fair and supportive of a balanced approach to reducing violent crime in St. Louis, meaning intervention where that works, prevention where that works and enforcement where that’s necessary. I would ask them to be patient, watch us do our work and judge us based on that.
