Shelby County State’s Attorney Deposition Confirms Misconduct and Conflicts with her Affidavit

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

Shelby County State’s Attorney Gina Vonderheide was deposed in the lawsuit brought against the County to stop payments to a private attorney hired illegally by the Board.  During the deposition, a shocking disclosure by Vonderheide points to a clear breach of her obligations and possible misconduct.

Q. Okay. And so you never objected to him providing services to the County for labor relations?
A. Correct.
Q. What about anything else?
A. No. I mean, I was okay with him providing other representation to the County as well.

So the duly elected State’s Attorney getting paid over $130,000.00 a year has no problem having Ed Flynn provide other representations to the County.  Considering the law outlines she is obligated to provide those services we believe her confirmation confirms what the paper trail exposed.  She was not doing her job and wants the taxpayers to pay her and pay another person who is doing the legal work she should be doing.  That points to misconduct.

She admits under oath it was her responsibility to provide labor relation legal advice.

Q. The County Board passed a resolution hiring counsel; correct?
A. Correct.
Q. And they hired him, would it be fair to say, to do a job that was at least your responsibility to provide?
A. Yes

During a closed session discussion Vonderheide claims she rendered no opinion on the hiring of Ed Flynn. However, in the deposition she claims she consented to it.  Which is true, she rendered no opinion or she consented? 

Q. In your affidavit, paragraph 12 states that you’re stating under oath that you hired him back to 2014; correct?
A. Correct.
Q. Can both of those be consistent?
A. I think they can. I mean, it was the Board resolution, I guess, in my opinion, is the event that started Mr. Flynn’s representation of us. I agreed to it. I had no problem with it. I consented to it.

And probably the biggest problem for Vonderheide is the Affidavit she signed which we wrote about in this article.  Now we know it was not drafted by her.  While we do not know if Ed Flynn or someone in his office drafted it, we do know it was Ed Flynn who brought it to Vonderheide to sign.

How special is it to have the Plaintiff in a case prepare an Affidavit with the Defendant’s legal counsel and have her sign it?  Was the client, the County Board, ever asked if they approved their legal counsel providing an affidavit, it’s sole purpose was to build support in a case against them?  An affidavit that has false information in it!  In that Affidavit, she claims she hired Ed Flynn, however, in the deposition it’s confirmed she NEVER hired him. That would indicate she was not truthful in her Affidavit.

Q. So would it be fair to say that this document in paragraph 12 was specifically prepared as a part of this litigation?
A. I believe that to be correct.

Q. So would it be fair to say that prior to you being provided this document and being asked to sign it, you had not yourself personally gone to Mr. Flynn and said, Hey, I want to hire you as a special assistant pursuant to this section? Did you ever go to him and bring that up before you were given a copy of this to sign or consider?
A. No.

Q. Okay. From January 1st, 2019, until the date this affidavit was signed, do you, to your knowledge, know of any document in writing that would have purported to hire her Flynn to work for the County under that provision of the County Code?
A. I don’t know of one, huh-uh.

We urge everyone to read the entire deposition transcript to grasp the magnitude of incompetence and malfeasance by the Shelby County State’s Attorney.

It is our opinion this deposition is more than sufficient to prove the County Board did, in fact, hire a private attorney without any legal authority, and the neglect of duty by the State’s Attorney should result in a declaration by the Courts that Ed Flynn was hired illegally and no payments shall be made to him.

A copy of the transcript can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.