Report shows obstruction in lawmaker investigation
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher and his office repeatedly obstructed a months-long investigation into a complaint of ethical misconduct, an investigative report rejected by the House Ethics Committee found.
The report, which the committee voted down late Monday, detailed how Plocher, through his office, blocked several subpoenas issued by the committee to compel witnesses to testify. It also showed that a Republican lawmaker allegedly “highly encouraged” one witness not to testify.
In another instance described in the report, the top attorney for Plocher’s office made a House employee unlock the committee’s hearing room in
March so he could “take photographs.”
Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican, said Monday that the report showed “absolute obstruction” of the investigation by Plocher’s office.
“We sought subpoenas and you’ll see in the report, the appendix, there was much protest to that,” she said. “The House rules are not structured to investigate the speaker.”
The report’s contents became public after a tense meeting in which Kelly motioned for the secretive committee to vote on the document in open session. While the committee failed to approve the report, its findings painted a damning portrait.
The committee’s investigation, which began in October, is still active and the complaint has not been dismissed. But
Monday’s chaotic meeting marked what could be a turning point in the investigation into Plocher, the top House Republican who is running for secretary of state.
Plocher did not return a call for comment on Tuesday. One of his staffers told reporters late Monday night that he did not plan to comment on the report at that time.
On Wednesday morning, Hampton Williams, an attorney for House Republicans, released a statement that recounted the actions of the Ethics Committee and emphasized the complaint against Plocher remains open.
“Having refused to adopt the report and letter of reproval, the disposition of the complaint remains open and pending before the Ethics Committee. Contrary to some media reports, this matter is not concluded, as an affirmative decision by a majority of the committee members is required,” Williams said.
Questions have swirled in the Missouri Capitol about what the committee will do next. The panel was scheduled to meet again on Tuesday but the meeting was canceled as House Republicans left the Capitol to caucus in private at the Missouri Farm Bureau headquarters in Jefferson City.
Four Republicans told The Star that the report was not discussed at the meeting.
Kelly was facing intense pressure from Plocher’s supporters on social media and elsewhere to release the long-awaited report and to wrap up the investigation. One of Kelly’s former staffers had also sent an email to all House lawmakers last week that painted the investigation as politically-motivated.
Kelly told reporters that she decided to make sure the report became public after Plocher’s personal attorney went on a radio program on Friday and criticized the fact that the investigation was being conducted behind closed doors.
Ethics Committee Vice Chair Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat, said that information from the investigation, which is supposed to be confidential, continued to be leaked publicly.
“This is a situation that, because of that, needs to come to light,” he said. “A little sunshine would actually help maybe get to the bottom of this.”
The rejected report confirmed that Rep. Chris Sander, a Lone Jack Republican, filed the complaint related to a slew of scandals including revelations that Plocher received nearly $4,000 in government reimbursements for false travel expenses, concerns about his push for the House to issue an expensive technology
contract and threats against House staff.
The document did not find direct evidence that Plocher committed ethical violations and found that no evidence of a “quid pro quo” related to his push for the technology contract. The only punishment it recommended was a letter of disapproval against Plocher.
But the report also described the lengths that Plocher, his office and supporters, allegedly went to hamper the investigation.
“I have not encountered more unwilling witnesses in any investigation in my career,” Beth Boggs, an attorney hired to assist the investigation, wrote in her report. “The level of fear expressed by a number of the potential witnesses is a
daunting factor in completing this investigation.”
The report includes letters sent between Plocher’s general counsel and Kelly’s office showing that Plocher’s office denied the committee’s request for subpoenas to compel witnesses. His office also rejected two follow up requests.
Plocher, as speaker, has the power to sign off on subpoenas issued by the committee and he did not recuse himself from that power for an investigation connected to himself, the report showed. However it does state that House Speaker Pro Tem Rep. Mike Henderson, a Bonne Terre Republican, eventually approved three subpoenas.
The report detailed how one witness, described only as “Witness 6,”
feared that her employment was at risk for testifying before the committee. It stated that Rep. Dale Wright, a Farmington Republican who oversees internal spending, “highly encouraged” the witness not to testify.
“Wright somehow knew that Witness 6 was to appear before the committee — information that would be confidential,” the report said. “Wright said that Witness 6 did not have to appear and that if the witness did testify, that Witness 6 could just state that ‘you don’t know.’”
Wright did not immediately return a call for comment on Tuesday.
On the morning of March 13, the report said, the general counsel in Plocher’s office “used his position of authority” to make a House employee unlock the room where the committee held its meeting and where it stored its laptops. The attorney explained to the employee that he did this to “take photographs.”
The general counsel refused to appear before the committee to explain his actions, the report said.
Sander, who filed the complaint, told The Star that he was concerned about Plocher’s alleged obstruction of the investigation.
“It sounds like there was not a lot of cooperation or participation with the Ethics Committee,” he said. Sander called on the committee to continue having meetings in open session.
Rep. Cyndi BuchheitCourtway, a Festus Republican and member of the committee, voted “present” on approving the report Monday evening. In a statement posted on social media, she said that she was unable to sign off on the report as it was written.
“The final adopted report should reflect and stand alone as the definitive word of the committee and all its members on this matter,” she said on Facebook. “This process has gone on too long and needs to come to an end.”