Cape County spent $5,775 on legal help for Sunshine Law, harassment issue, land sale

Obtaining legal advice on sexual harassment, the Sunshine Law, selling county park land and easements cost Cape Girardeau County $5,775 through July 25, according to bills released in response to a Sunshine Law request.

Those records, given to the Southeast Missourian on Wednesday by Cape Girardeau lawyer J.P. Clubb, who made the Sunshine request, detail the dates and in some instances the amount of time spent by three area lawyers tapped for advice by Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle. Swingle, who did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment, has said he needed the help to supplement his knowledge for his role as attorney for the county.

In one instance, a bill from the Limbaugh Law Firm reports a May 7 conference with Swingle and District 2 Commissioner Jay Purcell. The meeting took place five days before Swingle asked the Missouri attorney general's office to assign a special prosecutor to review whether criminal charges should be filed against Purcell for secretly taping an April 17 closed meeting of the commission.

At the May 7 meeting, which Purcell said Wednesday included lawyer Diane Howard, Swingle advised that Purcell was not obligated under the Sunshine Law to make public the April 17 recording or a recording of Purcell's four-hour trip in February to Jefferson City with Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

"Basically the gist was that because the recordings were my property, on my equipment and not owned by the county, they were not county records," Purcell said.

Swingle and Howard told him that his perception of the Sunshine Law was flawed. "He advised me repeatedly about how not to release those audio tapes," Purcell said. "It was very shocking to me, and I felt very betrayed."

When Purcell announced he planned to release the recordings, Swingle announced he wanted to explore criminal charges, Purcell said.

Swingle's motive, Purcell said, was to prevent the revelations about the conduct of county business contained on the recordings. "Morley Swingle said point-blank that 'you understand you have the only copy of the audio recordings. If they disappear, I could not prosecute you because I would have no evidence.'"

Clubb said he released the billing documents because of past reports in the Southeast Missourian that Swingle had denied the newspaper access to similar records. At that time, Swingle said release of the billing records could jeopardize the attorneys' work.

Clubb represents Purcell in a lawsuit against the county commission alleging that the April 17 meeting was improperly closed. As part of that meeting, commissioners discussed how to deal with possible sexual harassment claims against Auditor David Ludwig based on Ludwig's Internet use. Purcell's recording of that meeting could be the basis of a possible criminal charge.

The request for the billing records is unrelated to the lawsuit, Clubb said. "I just wanted to see if they would comply with the law when I sent a request," he said.

The bills show the county paid the Limbaugh Law Firm $1,540 through July 1 for Howard's work on sexual harassment and Sunshine Law issues. Another $2,895 to has been paid through July 25 to Ludwig & Boner for lawyer Tom Ludwig's work to defend the county against Purcell's lawsuit. And the county has paid $1,320 to Lichtenegger, Weiss & Fetterhoff for notary, easement law and real estate sales research.

The funds came from the county's budget for professional services. The fund regularly pays for such items as the annual county audit. Of $102,160 budgeted for professional services for 2008, the county has used $65,276, according to Virgie Koeppel, deputy county auditor.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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