Judge lets indictment of Missouri governor go forward

ST. LOUIS — An indictment charging Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens with felony invasion of privacy will go forward as scheduled and a jury will decide the case, a judge ruled Monday.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison issued a trio of rulings against the Republican governor, rejecting requests by Greitens’ attorneys to dismiss the indictment, disqualify a special assistant prosecutor and have the case decided by the judge instead of a jury.

Greitens was indicted in February for allegedly taking and transmitting a nonconsensual photo of a partially nude woman in 2015. Greitens has admitted to having an extramarital affair with his hairdresser as he was preparing to run for governor in 2015, but has not directly answered questions about whether he took a photo of her and has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

He has accused Democratic Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of a politically motivated investigation.

Greitens’ trial is set for May 14.

The governor’s attorneys had argued the indictment should be dismissed. They claimed assistant prosecutor Robert Steele made a “flagrant misstatement” to grand jurors about the Missouri’s invasion of privacy law by telling them that as long as Greitens took a nonconsensual photo of the women, then what he did with it was “irrelevant.”