Prosecutor won’t refile Greitens case
ST. LOUIS — A special prosecutor investigating former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens said Friday that she believed a woman’s claim that Greitens took an unauthorized and compromising photo during an extramarital affair but that but there wasn’t enough evidence to merit a criminal charge. Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker declined to refile a felony invasion of privacy charge against Greitens, who resigned last week. A St. Louis grand jury indicted Greitens in February, accusing him of taking a photo of the woman during a March 2015 sexual encounter without her permission while she was blindfolded, bound at the hands and at least partially nude. But St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner abruptly dropped the charge last month after a judge said Greitens’ attorneys could call Gardner as a witness, and Baker was later appointed to look into the case. “I believe her statements about being photographed are true,” Baker said. But
without proof of the photograph, the full weight of the case would have rested with the woman, who didn’t want to go it alone, Baker said. “In the words of this victim, quote, ‘My heart just can’t bear it,’” Baker said at a sometimes emotional news conference in Kansas City. “That statement still weighs heavily on me.” Greitens’ attorney Jim Martin said in a statement that defense lawyers “agree with the prosecution that there was not sufficient evidence to file any charges.” The invasion of privacy case was among many problems the Republican governor faced. He also was accused of illegally using a donor list from a charity he founded to raise money for his campaign. That charge was dropped in exchange for Greitens’ resignation, which came as legislators were meeting in special session to consider possible impeachment. Records provided Friday to The Associated Press show that attorneys who represented Greitens’ office against the legislative investigation billed the state more than $153,000. Still pending is a complaint to the Missouri Ethics Commission alleging Greitens’ filed false reports.