Eckersley

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster signed a letter this week clearing a former government attorney of allegations of wrongdoing made against him by the administration of former Gov. Matt Blunt.

But before fired Blunt deputy counsel Scott Eckersley got the letter he was seeking, Koster’s office asked Eckersley to sign a release ending his dispute over legal fees with his private attorneys, Strong, Garner, Bauer of Springfield.

Those attorneys donated tens of thousands of dollars to Koster’s campaign in 2008, and over the years have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the various campaigns of Gov. Jay Nixon.

Eckersley had sued Blunt and various staff members in January 2008, claiming the administration wrongly fired him and maligned his character after he tried to warn them about potential violations of open records laws. That lawsuit was settled in May, but Eckersley contends that Nixon, Koster and his attorneys made a private pact promising him a letter clearing his name in exchange for him dropping his lawsuit against the state.

Eckersley said one of Koster’s top deputies, Joe Dandurand, told him that the attorney general would not sign the letter Eckersley sought unless the former state attorney signed a release ending his dispute with Strong, Garner, Bauer law firm. Eckersley also signed a release promising not to sue the state of Missouri or any of its employees.

“The fact is, I had to sign off both things to get the letter that was promised to me,” Eckersley said.

Dandurand said Eckersley is accurate, but he said the attorney general’s office had nothing to do with negotiating the terms of the release signed by Eckersley and his attorneys.

“We didn’t care how he settled the dispute with Garner-Bauer,” Dandurand said. “It’s an important fine line. We didn’t broker it or negotiate it.”

Dandurand said the fee dispute between Eckersley and his attorneys threatened to cost the state more money in attorney’s fees, and that’s why Koster wanted Eckersley to sign the release.

“Either way, a lawsuit brings in the same issues, the same witnesses,” Dandurand said. He said he hopes the two-year dispute can now be “put to bed.”

Garner said that his office didn’t ask for the release, but that he was glad to sign it. The release says that Eckersley will pay Garner’s firm about $200,000. That money comes from the state’s legal defense fund and has been in an escrow account as a final resolution to the dispute was discussed.

“I didn’t care one way or another,” Garner said. “There was no quid pro quo.”
Records obtained by the Post-Dispatch indicate that when Eckersley’s defamation of character lawsuit against Blunt and some of his former staff members was dismissed in May, private negotiations continued between Eckersley’s attorneys, the attorney general’s office and the governor’s office over a letter that would clear the fired attorney of any wrongdoing.

“We still have a letter problem,” Garner wrote to Koster assistant Joe Dandurand on June 10. “Although it was not a written term of the agreement it was an oral term and one dependant on trust. I got Scott to go along based upon my representations that the people we were dealing with were of unquestionable honesty. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the letter and Jeff is having difficulty getting anyone to return his call.”

Another e-mail from Dandurand to attorney Jeff Bauer indicates the key people responsible for negotiations over the Eckersley letter were Nixon attorney Ted Ardini and top Nixon aide Paul Wilson.

“Talked with Ardini last night,” Dandurand wrote Bauer, using his state e-mail address, “Says it is Wilson’s deal, and he will talk with Paul today. I recommend you keep trying to get hold of Paul.”

The Post-Dispatch had sought Dandurand’s e-mails in a Sunshine Law request, but they were denied on the basis that they were attorney-client privilege.

In an interview, Dandurand said that the attorney general believed there was an oral agreement between the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office and Eckersley to produce some form of letter clearing his name in order for him to drop the case.

Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti has denied that any members of Nixon’s office were involved in settlement negotiations. In July, the director of the Office of Administration, Kelvin Simmons, placed a letter in Eckersley’s personnel file suggesting that many of the allegations that had been made by Blunt staffers about his work performance were inaccurate.

Koster’s letter says much the same thing.

Dandurand said Eckersley didn’t believe Simmons’ letter satisfied the agreement, and that’s why Koster signed a separate letter, to end the dispute.

“Otherwise we wouldn’t be here today,” Dandurand said.

Jerry Hunter, the St. Louis attorney who represented Blunt in the case, said Dandurand told him about the letter Koster was signing on Monday.

“We tried to discourage the attorney general’s office in very strong terms from signing that letter,” Hunter said. “The settlement didn’t provide for that letter and the lawsuit had already been dismissed.”

The May settlement reached between Eckersley, Blunt and his former staff members, pays Eckersley and his attorneys $500,000.

The lawsuit followed Nixon’s action appointing special investigators to determine whether Blunt’s office was following Sunshine Law. Those investigators ran into their own legal troubles with the governor’s office and ultimately filed a report alleging multiple Sunshine Law violations.

Blunt and his allies, including his former chief of staff, Ed Martin, had alleged that Nixon was investigating Eckersley’s case for political reasons, and they pointed out Garner’s close connections to the Nixon campaign.

When he agreed to the settlement, Eckersley said, his attorneys assured him that Nixon had agreed to sign a letter clearing him of all the allegations that had been made against him by the previous governor.

But that letter never came and Eckersley eventually fired his attorneys over the dispute.