A disgraced former Missouri prosecutor has started a new career as a nursing fellow in California.

Former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, 50, is listed as a 2025-26 Primary Care APP Fellow at UC Davis.

Her fellowship biography states that she is a dual-certified family nurse practitioner and psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, and that her clinical placement is with the UC Davis Health Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in Sacramento.

‘She integrates her clinical training with a background in law to address the complex intersection of health disparities, structural inequalities and the criminal legal system,’ the biography stated.

‘Her work focuses on improving access to equitable mental health care for underserved communities.’

Gardner left the prosecutor’s office in 2023 after she faced mounting criticism for her lax enforcement of crimes that saw criminals back on the streets of St. Louis, facing little punishment even as crime spiked throughout the Midwest hub.

In early 2025, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick found that Gardner attended classes at St. Louis University and completed clinical work on 40 separate occasions over a two-year period while in office, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Gardner also has a pending disbarment case against her by state disciplinary lawyers who claim she violated professional conduct rules when she directed employees to reimburse her for a 2022 Supreme Court reprimand.

Former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, 50, is listed as a 2025-26 Primary Care APP Fellow at UC Davis

Gardner left the DA’s office in 2023 after she faced mounting criticism for her lax enforcement of crimes. She currently has a Missouri disbarment case pending against her

The reprimand stemmed from one of Gardner’s first controversial moves to indict former Governor Eric Greitens for taking a partially nude photo of a woman without her consent.

The charges were eventually dropped, and an investigator she hired pleaded guilty in federal court to concealing documents in the case.

Gardner was reprimanded by the Missouri Supreme Court and was forced to pay $750 in an ethics case over her office’s mishandling of evidence. 

State disciplinary lawyers claim Gardner then directed employees to issue $5,004.33 in checks to reimburse herself for the fee. 

The case is still pending, and it is unclear when a decision will be made.

Gardner, who was backed by billionaire George Soros and received about $116,000 from the Soros-backed Vera Institute of Justice PAC, won her seat in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020.  

Under her watch, murder in St. Louis hit a 50-year high, and the city saw fewer and fewer felonies prosecuted. The St. Louis attorney’s office was drastically understaffed during Gardner’s leadership. When she took office, there were 60 attorneys; when she left, there were only around 30.

Gardner’s approach to crime centered around prevention, including punishing low-level crimes with diversion to mental health facilities or drug abuse treatment centers.

In early 2025, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick found that Gardner attended classes at St. Louis University or completed clinical work on 40 separate occasions over a two-year period

Call grew for Gardner’s resignation after a high school girl lost both her legs when a driver that Gardner failed to keep in jail crash into her

Gardner was also the DA who charged Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who made headlines for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters

She pledged to hold police more accountable and to free inmates who were wrongfully convicted.

In 2019, Gardner announced an ‘exclusion list’ that listed about 75 police officers in St. Louis who were no longer allowed to bring cases to her office because their ‘integrity is compromised.’

Another controversial case that Gardner oversaw was a Cinco de Mayo shooting, which the DA refused to press charges against the suspect due to a ‘lack of evidence’ despite surveillance images of the suspect wielding a gun.

She later also came under fire for her decision to charge Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who made headlines for brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters.

In February 2023, a high school volleyball player from Tennessee had both legs amputated after a horrific car crash caused by a driver who was free on bond from a previous armed robbery charge despite nearly 90 violations of his bail.

In the aftermath, many of Gardner’s former allies called for her resignation, and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit seeking her removal.

Gardner called the suit a politically motivated attack on her office and blamed subordinates as the spotlight turned to individual case dismissals and delays.

The anger over that decision eventually led to her resignation.

The Daily Mail contacted UC Davis and Gardner for comment.