st. LOUIS — A prosecutor tasked with leading the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s trial team will soon leave his role to spend more time with his family, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
Marvin Teer, 60, came out of retirement in 2021 to join Kimberly M. Gardner’s office, training other prosecutors and leading high-profile cases. He previously worked as a city prosecutor, an assistant attorney general, a traffic court judge and an administrative judge.
“Judge Marvin Teer has been an invaluable leader at the (Circuit Attorney’s Office), and has led his team with integrity” a spokeswoman wrote in a statement. “We wish him the best as he transitions from our office to spend more time with his family.”
Teer will depart at a cumulative time in Gardner’s office, leaving just five people handling hundreds of major prosecutions in the city. He’s also leaving as the office faces pressure from the state legislature, where a bill moving through the statehouse would strip Gardner of most of her power, and from the Missouri Attorney General, who filed a suit to remove her from office.
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Teer declined to comment or confirm his departure Thursday, but in a recent interview he extolled the virtues of his work and trial team, saying he was “humbled” by the young attorneys who worked long hours under difficult conditions to try cases.
“We put the work in,” he said last week.
Teer’s pending docket includes notable cases such as the 2020 killing of St. Louis police officer Tamarris L. Bohannon, a 2018 triple murder case and a murder-for-hire killing of a pregnant third-grade teacher.
A spokeswoman for the circuit attorney’s office did not immediately say when Teer would leave, but in a statement said there would be a “transition” where Teer would “continue to provide support.”
Kimberly Gardner is the first Black person to hold the role of St. Louis circuit attorney. She was first elected in 2016. A brief look at her career and controversies. Video by Beth O’Malley