04/18/2008

By CHRIS BLANK  / Associated Press

Attorneys for Gov. Matt Blunt argue in court documents filed Thursday that a defamation lawsuit filed by a former staff attorney should be moved to the state capital.

But attorneys for former aide Scott Eckersley said the suit should stay in Jackson County, where it was filed, or be transferred to St. Louis.

Eckersley sued Blunt and four past or current staff members, claiming he was fired for suggesting the governor's administration was destroying e-mails and then defamed when media outlets were given packets defending the firing.

Documents in the packets claimed Eckersley had registered for a "group sex Internet site" and had been questioned by the governor's chief of staff about illegal drug use.

Eckersley's lawsuit denies the charges, calling them "patently false" and "designed to injure, defame and smear."

At issue is where reporters read the documents.

Blunt's attorneys claim they were read by The Associated Press and The Kansas City Star in Cole County. But Eckersley argues the documents were read by the AP in Kansas City and by a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in St. Louis.

Last week, AP state Capitol correspondent David Lieb and former Star reporter Tim Hoover were subpoenaed by Blunt's attorneys to determine where the reporters read the documents included in their media packets.

According to court filings, attorneys for Eckersley said they planned to subpoena Post-Dispatch reporter Jo Mannies to determine where she read her copy.

Hoover, now a reporter for The Denver Post, wrote in an affidavit that he read the documents in the state Capitol.

Lieb, in an affidavit, wrote that on Friday, Oct. 26, while in the state Capitol, he read a cover letter from Deputy Administration Commissioner Richard Aubuchon that was attached to the documents. Lieb said he "skimmed the other documents" and then took them home.

Lieb wrote that he couldn't recall whether he read the documents that weekend, but that he took them with him on Monday, Oct. 29, when he went to Kansas City for training. Lieb said he used information from the documents for a story published that day.