Attorneys for Gov. Eric Greitens say St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and her team still have not turned over the photo at the center of Greitens’ felony invasion of privacy case.
“You’ll have to ask them for sure if they have a photograph, but none has been turned over to us,” defense attorney Jim Martin told reporters Thursday after a court hearing on unrelated evidentiary issues. “We’re relying on whatever they turn over. As I said, we want whatever they have.”
Greitens is accused of taking a semi-nude photo of his then-mistress without her consent, and then transmitting it in a way that it could be accessed by a computer. The governor has admitted to the affair — which took place in 2015 — but has pleaded not guilty to the felony charge.
A spokeswoman for the circuit attorney’s office said she would not discuss evidence in an ongoing investigation.
The two sides spent Thursday’s hearing sparring over how much access the defense team will have to evidence produced by a Michigan-based private investigative firm. The circuit attorney’s office said it hired the firm, Enterra, because the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI did not want to investigate, although Chief John Hayden told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the department was never asked.
The head of Enterra, William Tisaby, will be deposed on Monday. Robert Dierker, the circuit attorney’s chief trial assistant, told Judge Rex Burlison that the state did not plan to call Tisaby as a witness. Martin said the defense’s position would depend on what was said in the deposition.
Also on Thursday, an attorney for the woman told Burlison his client opposes allowing cameras in the courtroom during the trial. The circuit attorney’s office also does not want to allow cameras.
“Our country has a long history of the kind of courtroom drama that cameras in the courtroom can provoke,” Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for the circuit attorney, said in a statement. “We believe cameras in the courtroom could potentially compromise the ability for both the victim and the defendant to receive justice.”
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