Judge rules against Purcell in lawsuit versus Cape Girardeau County Commission

Associate Commissioner Jay Purcell on Friday lost on almost every legal point in his case alleging Sunshine Law violations by the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

In his rulling, Associate Circuit Judge Stephen Mitchell of Stoddard County declared that he found no purposeful or knowing violation of the Sunshine Law when the commission went behind closed doors on April 17.

And while commissioners did discuss matters that they should have aired in public, Mitchell ruled that those actions were not enough to impose any penalties on the commissioners.

During the closed session, commissioners discussed possible litigation by female employees over Auditor David Ludwig’s Internet usage and the possibility of a lawsuit over a road easement that was notarized and recorded years after it was signed.

In the 13-page ruling, Mitchell found that the meeting notice, the announced reasons for going into closed session before the vote and the matters discussed all comply with the requirements of the Sunshine Law.

“However, it is also clear to the court that the discussions held in closed session wandered off of ‘potential litigation’ to a large degree especially during the county auditor portion of the discussions,” Mitchell wrote. “All public bodies should establish procedures and practices for closed session that would limit the rambling engaged in by this body on April 17, 2008, while in closed session.”

In evaluating each member of the commission’s actions, Mitchell noted that Purcell “varied from appropriate subjects of closed session” but did not knowingly or purposefully violate the law. Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones participated in the off-limits discussion but sought to bring the talks back around to the correct matters, Mitchell noted. “The court finds that he both participated with Commissioner Purcell in varying widely from  the appropriate subject or subjects of the closed session and acted as a shepherd attempting to bring the group back to the proper subjects,” he wrote.

As for Associate Commissioner Larry Bock, “the court finds that he said the least of all the members of the commission at the April 17, 2008, closed session.”

Mitchell ordered Purcell to bear all the costs of the lawsuit.

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