State-appointed attorneys: Governor’s office violated Sunshine Law
JEFFERSON CITY – A Cole County Circuit Court judge approved a settlement today between Gov. Matt Blunt and court-appointed attorneys that provides thousands of public documents that had been sought by state investigators.
The investigators were appointed last year by Attorney General Jay Nixon to determine whether the governor’s office violated Sunshine Law and state records retention policies.
The settlement agreement doesn’t allege any violations of law, but the two attorneys appointed by Judge Richard Callahan made it clear today they believe the governor’s office violated both Sunshine Law and records retention law multiple times.
They agreed to the settlement, attorneys Louis Leonatti and Joe Maxwell said, because the Supreme Court has set an “impossible” bar to prove a “knowing and purposeful” violation of Sunshine Law. Without meeting that standard, the two special assistant attorneys general couldn’t seek penalties such as $1,000 fines for each violation.
“It’s not that Gov. Blunt personally did anything wrong,” said Maxwell, “… it’s that they office of governor acted incorrectly under the law.”
Leonatti and Maxwell said the violations included not retaining e-mails, and not having a clearly defined records retention policy. “Over time, over that month (of September 2007), slowly they evolved,” Maxwell said. “They corrected their actions once they realized they were incorrect.”
During a court hearing that lasted more than two hours, attorneys for Blunt continued to contend that the governor and his staff did nothing wrong. They agreed to settle the case, said attorney John Holstein, in the interest of saving taxpayers’ money.
The lawsuit, and a separate civil lawsuit involving the fired former deputy counsel of the governor, Scott Eckersley, have cost taxpayers more than $1 million in attorneys fees.
UPDATE: The governor’s office, through spokeswoman Jessica Robinson, issued the following statement this afternoon:
“Once again after false accussation after false accusation the governor’s office has been proven correct with the approval of the governor’s dismissal from this political case. It is truly unfortunate that Jay Nixon’s e-mail team has wasted more than $600,000 of taxpayer money with nothing to show for it but false accusations.
“Nixon’s political operative Chet Pleban has lost in court every time he has made these false accusations against the governor’s office, and the assertions Lou Leonatti made today were obviously not persuasive.
“Once again Nixon’s e-mail team failed to show any evidence that the governor was not in compliance with the Sunshine Lae or that his office directed the destruction of e-mail backup tapes, which is why this absurd political case is ending with the dismissal of the governor and four falsely accussed public servants.”
A million dollars for nothing, that was the end result of the suit and the settlement…what a waste of taxpayers money. And a misleading headline on the posting by Mr. Messenger, i.e., how can the ’state appointed attorneys say that there was a violation of the law’ when they themselves claim that it is ‘“impossible” to prove a “knowing and purposeful” violation of Sunshine Law’, in other words, they cannot prove there was any violation of the law. This entire fiasco was a witch hunt that resulted in nothing but an attempt to legally stain a publci official…it is shameful.