POKIN AROUND: Follow the bouncing baseball
Allegation of attempted bribery cost lawyer his license
Most people wonder, when they hear the story, why it isn't a football. You would think you'd want Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw to sign a football, not a baseball.
I can't tell you why it's a baseball. I don't know why.But what I can tell you is that on March 6 the Missouri Supreme Court suspended for a year the law license of David A. Dalton II, once a partner in Dalton Coyne Cundiff & Hillemann, with offices in Lake Saint Louis and Warrenton. The court found Dalton guilty of professional misconduct.
Dalton's father, David, and his Uncle Donald each served many years on the bench in St. Charles Circuit Court, and both had once served as presiding judge. Dalton II can petition the Supreme Court for reinstatement in a year.
In Missouri, the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which operates under the umbrella of the Supreme Court of Missouri, disciplines lawyers. Sam Phillips, the organization's deputy counsel, on Friday faxed me documents on the Dalton case.
According to those documents, Dalton and another lawyer, Brian Zink, who worked at the same firm, asked a client, Mary Hart, to obtain a baseball signed by Bradshaw, her alleged godfather.
For you non-sports fans, Bradshaw helped lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles. Online, you can buy a football (not baseball!) with his autograph on it for $376.
According to the documents, Dalton told his client that in exchange for the baseball he could get assistant prosecutor Matthew Thornhill to reduce a felony forgery charge to a misdemeanor.
What Thornhill did or didn't do, or if he even received the baseball, at this point, is not publicly known.
Two separate investigative agencies - the U.S. Attorney's Office and the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office - looked at the incident and decided not to file charges against Thornhill. In addition, the Supreme Court has taken no action against Thornhill's law license.
In fact, since then Thornhill became a judge. That was in January 2007, having been elected in November of 2006.
The same goes for Zink: No charges and no action against his law license.
But Zink and Dalton in June of 2007 signed what's called a "pretrial diversion agreement" with the U.S. Attorney's office not to practice law for a year in exchange for not being charged with lying about allegations of a bribery attempt. They also agreed to cooperate fully with the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel.
What remains to be seen is what, if anything, will happen to Zink and Thornhill.
Judge Thornhill, in order to be a judge, needs that law license.
On Friday I left a message for Thornhill. He did not call me back.
I called Dalton Coyne Cundiff & Hillemann and was told that Dalton and Zink don't work there anymore. I left a message for Patrick Coyne, who did not call me back.
So let's go back to this baseball and see if we can follow its trajectory. Clearly, it's had an impact on the St. Charles County legal community.
If you look at Thornhill's docket you won't find a single criminal case. That's because Jack Banas, the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney, has believed for quite some time that Thornhill did something wrong involving that baseball.
Banas was so concerned that before Thornhill even took the bench Banas promised that his office routinely would request a different judge for every single criminal case that went before the new judge. And when Thornhill took the bench, Banas did just that.
Thornhill came up with his own solution. He agreed to hear only civil cases. To this day, 15 months later, he hears only civil cases.
Neither Banas nor Thornhill enjoy talking about this. The Supreme Court keeps secret any pending investigation against a lawyer.
On Friday I asked Banas: If, in fact, Thornhill is the subject of a Supreme Court investigation, and should he eventually receive a letter of exoneration, which he then made public, would you end your objections to his hearing of criminal cases?
"I simply can't make any comment at this time," Banas said Friday. "When I can I will."
In a Jan. 5, 2007, statement Thornhill said:
"My family and I have been deeply saddened by the accusations leveled against me by my former employer, the prosecuting attorney of St. Charles County. I am proud of my service to the people in that office. I am completely innocent of the improper conduct of which I have been accused."
Banas has made it clear that the complaint about the possible bribe came to him from outside his office; he didn't create it. He had two outside agencies investigate it. Then, he told Thornhill, who at that point had been elected to the bench but was still working for Banas, that there would be an internal investigation to see if Thornhill violated office policies and procedures.
In response, Thornhill resigned.
So, in review, let's follow that bouncing baseball.
Jack Banas, a no-nonsense prosecutor, is convinced Thornhill, now a judge, did something wrong. It is widely believed Banas has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against Thornhill.
And then there's Thornhill, for 13 years a prosecutor who specialized in criminal cases involving the sexual abuse of children, a man named the Prosecutor of the Year in 1999 by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
This is a man considered the straightest of arrows, a man who leads Bible study for his fellow attorneys. For goodness sakes! He wears bow ties!
And yet he can't hear criminal cases.
A source I trust told me that, yes, a complaint has been filed against both Zink and Thornhill.
In all likelihood, I'm told, the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel would probably resolve the case against Zink before resolving the case against Thornhill.
And is Mary Hart really the goddaughter of Terry Bradshaw?
Yes, I'm told.
And once the FBI heard of the alleged bribery attempt she wore a wire and taped her conversations with her lawyers. And what Dalton says on the tapes apparently didn't match what he told the FBI.
According to the documents, Dalton admitted, among other things, that he "made false statements of material facts to the FBI."
The forgery charge against Hart has since been dropped.
Only the lawyers are left with their eyes on the ball.
