Cape Girardeau County Commission's attorney asks for dismissal of Purcell's lawsuit

Both sides of a legal battle over an April 17 Cape Girardeau Commission meeting have filed legal documents.

Second District Commissioner Jay Purcell sued the commission on May 14, asking county officials -- Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones, 1st District Commissioner Larry Bock and Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, who is also the commission's legal counsel -- to acknowledge the state's open meetings and records act, nicknamed the Sunshine Law, was broken by the commissioners' closed meeting on April 17. During that meeting, county Auditor David Ludwig was confronted over use of his county computer to view sex-related websites. The suit also asks county officials to agree to Sunshine Law training.

Purcell was deposed on Aug. 29.

On Sept. 10, the county's consulting attorney, Tom Ludwig, filed a legal brief which included affidavits signed by Jones, Bock and Swingle. Those documents assert that the suit should be dismissed because the commission is not technically a legal entity and therefore cannot be sued. The filing also asserts that Purcell cannot sue the board on which he serves.

In a response filed on Monday by Purcell's attorney, J.P. Clubb, maintains that the board is a legal entity and that Purcell "as a taxpayer and citizen of the state of Missouri" has a right to sue. Purcell and Clubb offered to settle the suit out of court months ago.

For more on this story, revisit semissourian.com or read Wednesday's Southeast Missourian.