A last-minute appeal Friday delayed the start of a trial to hear allegations that the Texas County prosecutor discriminated against a former employee and misused the powers of his office.
U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr postponed the trial set to begin Monday after Prosecutor Michael Anderson’s legal team appealed the judge’s ruling concerning what issues jurors would hear. The matter now goes to the 8th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
On Dec. 1, Dorr didn’t budge on several points and ordered Anderson to stand trial on the counts.
The delay came after dozens of persons were subpoenaed to give testimony in the lawsuit, which was filed about two years ago by Monica Daniel Hutchison, a former office employee in Anderson’s office.
Daniel’s claims of malicious prosecution, abuse of process concerning a subpoena and a civil lawsuit, emotional distress and a hostile work environment were to be heard this week in federal court in Springfield. Anderson denies all of the claims. Anderson’s attorneys asked Dorr last week to reconsider his order in a case that now includes more than 280 docket entries. After the judge denied the request, attorneys for Anderson asked for a hearing before the 8th District Court of Appeals, and the trial was postponed.
It was the second time last week that Dorr was called to consider a matter. Court documents show Anderson’s attorneys filed a motion last Wednesday for a hearing on a violation of protective order related to the testimony of some in the case. Hutchison’s attorneys, in a court filing, denied disclosing any information. Dorr sealed several court entries, including depositions given by Sgt. Jeff Kinder of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, former Licking Police Chief Danny McNew, former Licking officer Seth Walker and Stephanie Creek Pounds, a former clerk in Anderson’s office.
The four are among many who have been ordered to give depositions in the lawsuit filed in January 2009, which was about three years after allegations by her former boss, Anderson, surfaced in a Texas County civil lawsuit he filed in May 2006. Anderson claimed his former office secretary and another county employee, Mildred Williams, engaged in a smear campaign while operating a “swinger-style sex ring” from county government. Anderson, elected in 2002, dropped the suit about five weeks after it was filed. Williams filed a civil lawsuit against Anderson last year related to his earlier lawsuit. It is pending in Webster County.
It’s not known when the U.S. Court of Appeals might consider Anderson’s request.
Among the matters at issue: Prosecutor Anderson’s use of an investigative subpoena to gain a copy of answering machine recordings of telephone conversations he made in the middle of the night in December 2005 after arriving at Hutchison’s house at Licking. A few weeks later Hutchison left the county’s employment.
Court filings introduced in the case since its filing contain testimony that may make many in the courtroom blush. Tales of extramarital affairs, group sexual encounters and trips to strip clubs involve those who were on the public payroll. County government also doesn’t escape embarrassment: Tales of sexual conquests and inappropriate behavior by workers in the prosecutor’s office fill pages of testimony given. At one point in a deposition, a county clerical worker reports the circulation of sex toys and magazines in the office.
PDF: Judges denies reconsideration