Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Wild Card

I forgot to post this.

In the latest article in the TP on the crime camera scandal, this comment was made by Active Solutions and Southern Electronics attorney:

But Glad Jones, who represents the plaintiffs, argued that St. Pierre is too central to his case.
"Mr. St. Pierre is at the intersection of all of our causes of action," he said.


That is true. But I would also add that Mark Kurt is just as much of a pivot point as St. Pierre. Kurt was the acting CTO who actually started rediverting cash to Netmethods.

I can't help but wonder where he is during this entire mess. I had reports that he now lives in Colorado and works for CIBER (go figure). I think he, even above St. Pierre, is the critical cornerstone in the crime camera case. St. Pierre never actually worked directly for the city...he was just a contractor and the obvious recipient of Meffert's good ole' boy, no-bid, handouts. But Kurt....Kurt replaced Meffert as CTO and was the sitting CTO who actually redirected money from the existing contract to Netmethods. Kurt was the one that decided to allow the crime camera antennae array to be moved to the top of One Shell Square and put under Netmethods billling cycle.

Where is Kurt in all this? Why hasn't he been deposed?

Kurt may be the wild card in the deck.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kurt worked for St. Pierre! If Kurt did something,, it's because St. Pierre told him to.

Jason Brad Berry said...

yeah he did..but St. Pierre was never an actual city employee. Kurt was slid into replace Meffert and keep the gravy traing going and didn't reap the same rewards as St. Pierre. My point being that if you're looking for someone to go canary...I think Kurt is the best choice.

Anonymous said...

Pure speculation: maybe he's already gone canary and doesn't need to be deposed.

mominem said...

St. Pierre's lawyer said

"By testifying in his own defense in the civil matter, St. Pierre could expose himself to criminal liability ..."

Meffert already said what St. Pierre did and apparently Southern has all of the receipts.

I doubt the Feds have overlooked Kurt.

Jason Brad Berry said...

M,

Yeah I'm sure the Feds haven't overlooked him....I was wondering about the civil suit. Why hasn't Glad Jones subpoena'd (forgive me but i don't know the past tense of subpoena) Kurt in the civil suit?

Anonymous said...

I don't think most on here realize just how desparate the accused are right nnow. The vast majority are in dire financial straits and some have even experienced maritial & family problems as a result of the lawsuit & federal investigations.

The number of unindicted co-conspirators who are cooperating with the government are pretty large at this point. The early birds have gotten their worm and the rest are left to dangle in the water waiting for the shark to gobble them up without remorse.

mominem said...

How do you know he wasn't deposed?
Often such actions won't be reflected in court documents,

If he was deposed without a subpoena and nothing about it was ever used in court, it might not be in the record.. Of course since you say he now lives out of state I'm not sure how they would serve him or perhaps the cost of doing it wasn't worth the effort. If they can get to him they would probably have to pay his expenses to come here or go there to take his deposition.

bayoustjohndavid said...

FWIW, I know somebody who tells a pretty similar story to the plaintiffs, but he doesn't claim any damages. Says he made a pitch to the city, Meffert called in his assistants -- who all had City of N.O. business cards (says he still has the business cards) -- to hear his ideas. A few years later he sees their names in the paper and it turns out they weren't city officials, but people with firms that he was competing with. Or would have been competing with, had he made much of a play for city business.