Story Hearing Breakdown

Click here and here for my accounts from the morning and afternoon sessions of the Tom Story hearing today.

Those posts focus on the overall themes. Here are a few finer points that illustrate the cases that both Story and the City Attorney’s Office are trying to make as they argue for and against the city attorney’s removal from the case (on the grounds that ethical lines were crossed between the civil and criminal wings of his office):

• With Barry Bruins, a criminal investigator with the City Attorney’s Office, on the stand, defense attorney Pam Naughton pointed to an e-mail between Bruins and Julio DeGuzman. He’s a civil investigator working on the civil case against Sunroad Enterprises, Story’s boss.

In the e-mail, DeGuzman tells Bruins that he’s got a piece of evidence that shows the date in which Story was working for Sunroad — details that could’ve helped Bruins make the case that Story broke the law mandating that former city officials refrain from lobbying within one year of leaving the city’s employ. DeGuzman also asks Bruins how the lobbying law applied to Story’s situation. Bruins responds.

In court, Naughton asked Bruins why it was important to notify someone in the civil division of the law that would be used in Story’s criminal prosecution. Because he asked a question, Bruins responded.

Naughton also repeatedly asked Bruins and fellow criminal investigator Kim Urie about their receipt of documents directly from the civil division. She also pointed to one e-mail from DeGuzman to civil investigator Shawn Brown setting up an interview with a witness in which DeGuzman offers to invite Urie to the interview if Brown can’t make it.

• On the city attorney’s side, prosecutor Steven Hansen solicited answers from Bruins and Urie saying that they’d learned about the case through the newspaper — not from the civil division.

Through his questioning, Hansen made the point that the criminal division could have gotten all of the documents — which he said were public — directly from city departments, but simply got them from the civil division out of convenience and efficiency.

Bruins said it is also office policy that civil attorneys and investigators aren’t to be present in meetings about criminal proceedings.

During her testimony, Urie said she has never been involved in the civil litigation involving Sunroad. She also said Aguirre asked her to look into the case, but didn’t tell her to specifically look into any people or violations.

• Naughton also asked Aguirre about a statement made earlier in the day by former Deputy City Attorney David Miller. The former deputy had said that Aguirre had said Story “had to have a hand in this.”

Aguirre confirmed that he had made that statement. And “I believe that to be the fact today,” he added.

— ANDREW DONOHUE