Suers seek Maggio-tied data

Nursing-home owner told records sought for deposition

CONWAY -- Attorneys for Martha Bull's family have told nursing-home owner Michael Morton to take cellular and other phone records to a lawsuit deposition next month.

Attorneys Thomas Buchanan and Brannon Sloan Jr., who represent two of Bull's daughters, gave notice in a court document of the oral and video deposition scheduled for June 10 in Fort Smith, where Morton's business operations are based. Such sessions, in which attorneys question people in preparation for a trial, are not open to the public.

The attorneys filed the notice Monday in Faulkner County Circuit Court, where the daughters have sued Morton and former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway. Bull's family contends that the men conspired with former Circuit Judge Michael Maggio to funnel contributions to Maggio's since-halted campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

Baker and Morton have denied the allegation and have not been charged with a crime.

Maggio has pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge and is set to be sentenced July 24 in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

In Monday's notice, attorneys instructed Morton to take to the deposition all cellphone records between Jan. 1, 2013, and Aug. 1, 2013, and phone records from any line he used during that same period. The notice further tells Morton to produce any phone records and "business or bank records" that Morton or his attorneys have provided "by any method" to the FBI or the U.S. attorney's office.

The notice also advised Morton to have on hand any documents he or his attorneys have received from or provided to the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office, as well as any documents exchanged between him and any employee of any nursing facility in Faulkner County during that time.

Morton also was told to show up with any documents, other than correspondence with his attorneys, that he had with anyone regarding the Bull case or contributions to Maggio between Jan. 1, 2013, and Aug. 21, 2013. The notice defines documents as text messages, emails, Facebook messages, correspondence, faxes and any other communication.

Morton spokesman Matt DeCample said late Monday that Morton "will confer with his lawyers about the document requests between now and the deposition date."

In an emailed statement, DeCample also said, "Although Mr. Morton has already been deposed in this matter, he has agreed to sit down to answer additional questions."

Buchanan, the representative for Bull's daughters, countered that the statement that Morton had already been deposed was "very misleading."

Buchanan said he had deposed Morton in the original lawsuit resulting from Bull's death but not in the pending case against Morton and Baker.

"That [deposition] was [in] the original lawsuit about what happened to Martha Bull. This lawsuit" is about what happened to the family "as a result of criminal conduct," Buchanan said.

Maggio was presiding over a negligence lawsuit resulting from Bull's April 2008 death at the time of contributions to eight political action committees in 2013, seven of which later gave money to Maggio. In July 2013, he lowered a Faulkner County jury's $5.2 million verdict to $1 million.

The plea agreement Maggio signed implicated two other people but did not identify them by name. Rather, it said one owned the nursing home where a lawsuit resulted from a woman's death in 2008 and that the other was a fundraiser for Maggio's campaign.

The deposition is to take place at the Fort Smith office of Kirkman Dougherty, one of the lawyers representing Morton.

The next pretrial hearing in the pending lawsuit is scheduled for May 19 in Conway before Special Judge David Laser of Jonesboro.

The FBI has been investigating the contributions.

State Desk on 05/12/2015

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