Transcript of the Testimony of Becky Brill-Pinson

Date: December 5, 2013 Volume: I Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

Printed On: December 18, 2013

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Becky Brill-Pinson

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 1

IN RE:

JOPLIN CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

TELEPHONE SWORN STATEMENT OF

BECKY BRILL-PINSON

Taken on Thursday, December 5, 2013, from 10:32 a.m. to

10:58

a.m., at the law offices of Juddson H. McPherson, LLC, 626 S. Byers, in the City of Joplin, County of Jasper, State of Missouri, before SHARON K. ROGERS, C.C.R.650, a Certified Court Reporter and a Notary Public within and for the County of Jasper, and State of Missouri.

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In Re: Becky Brill-Pinson

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 2

APPEARANCES

MR. THOMAS E. LORAINE Loraine & Associates, LLC 4075 Osage Beach Pkwy., Suite 300 Osage Beach, MO 65065

tellaw@loraineandassociates.com

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Joplin Critical Investigation

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S T I P U L A T I O N

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED that this Sworn Statement may be taken by steno-mask type recording by SHARON K. ROGERS, a Certified Court Reporter, and afterwards reduced into typewriting. It is further stipulated that the signature of the witness is hereby waived, and that said Sworn Statement of said witness shall be of the same force and effect as though said witness had read and signed Sworn Statement.

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I N D E X

Page/Line

DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE

5-4

E X H I B I T S

(sic) - typed as spoken (ph.) - phonetic

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Q. A. A. Q. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. BECKY BRILL-PINSON Having been first duly sworn and examined, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE: Q. Becky, would you state your name and your present occupation for the record? It's actually Becky Pinson now. married a month ago. Grant Analysis. And what was the spelling on that last name? It's P-I-N-S-O-N. Becky, how old of a person are you? I'm 42. Is it true that you used to work for the City of Joplin? Yes. And how did you work? here? I was the Grant Coordinator for the City Manager. You worked underneath City Manager Rohr? Yes, and the Assistant Sam Anslem. Can you tell me there's been a sticky note issue that has come up. Are you familiar What was your position I just got

And my occupation is

with a sticky note that was in the

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Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. A. Q. A. Q. A. handwriting of Mark Rohr found on the floor? Is that true? Yes. And where did you find that? I actually found it on my lunch hour. If you

walk towards the bathroom on the second floor there's a piece of carpet in between the men's restroom and the women's restroom and it was laying face up where the handwriting was visible in that area on the carpet. Can you tell me what information was contained on that, if you recall? If you've ever read his handwriting it's impossible. I looked at it and couldn't

identify anything but the little whatever the identifier is for the FBI. I looked at that

and though, ooh, that probably shouldn't be sitting on the carpet in between the bathrooms. So what did you do when you picked it up? I took it back to my office actually to give it back to Mark and his door was shut and at that time I looked over at the clock and realized it's lunch hour, everybody is gone, and was going to put it on the secretary's

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. desk to wait for him to come back, but because it said FBI it made me kind of nervous. The first drawer of hers is the

only one that is unlocked and we walk in there all the time and grab keys for different meeting rooms. And because I

couldn't read the handwriting I thought that's probably not very safe, so I walked from her office and just handed it to the City Attorney and said this was laying by the bathroom, I don't know what it is, it says FBI, I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be on the floor. We have a conference room, they have

a conference room that's adjacent to the bathrooms, and they had a meeting going on. I think it was a Chamber - no, maybe it was Wallace-Bajjali. I can't keep them straight.

There were about 25 people in the conference room and that was part of why I picked it up because I didn't want somebody - obviously if I found it somebody else was going to find it, so I wanted it in someone's hands for safety. So you put it basically in Brian Head's hands?

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Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. A. A. Q. Yes, gave it to Brian. So subsequent to that there's been quite a controversy over how Brian got it so I'm glad you came forward with this information. Yes, my mom has been calling me and reading me what's been said in the Globe. There was no intent on your part to steal anything or take it off of Mark's desk or anything of that nature, you just found it in the hall and you saw the word FBI on it and some scribbles and you handed it to Head? It's just that simple? Yes, to be really honest I thought I was safeguarding the note by picking it up because it did say FBI on it, and I knew it was my boss' handwriting, and you don't want that floating around, so the whole idea was to remove it from what could have been anybody picking it up in the public and pushing it back into, you know, the attorney's hands, keeping it safe. So originally if Mark would have been there you probably would have handed it back to him because you recognized his handwriting? I did. I actually went to his door and his

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Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. A. Q. Q. door was locked. That's where I went first I was working on

with the sticky note.

something on the computer and I just totally lost track of time. So after I went to his

door and the handle was locked I turned around and looked at the clock, that's by the double doors and thought, oh, well, of course, it's when he leaves for lunch, so he's not here. And I recognized his

secretary wasn't at her desk, so those two options were out. Okay. So you selected the third most safe

option, and that would have been Brian Head? Yeah, exactly. Okay. Can you tell me why you did not want

to get involved in coming forth with this information at an earlier time? I wouldn't say that. It's always been a

constant battle between City administration and the Council, and also City administration and the City Attorney's office, a lot of conflict with those areas. I work with all

three of them and there tends to be a us versus them mentality. job review. I (inaudible) of my

Every job review I had to sign

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Page 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Q. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. off on. One of the things I have to agree to

do was never speak to any other person about what is said in the City management office. So you knew from day one that there is always, you know, a widely unspoken rule that you had to be very careful of what you said and who you said it to because you would raise the ire of -The ire of who? The City management, both the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager. That's Mark Rohr and Sam? Correct. How long did you work for the City Manager? About 8 years. Why did you quit? I got engaged to a young man who lives in Fayetteville. He just passed his CPA and has a company here, so it was just not an option for him to move to Joplin since he already had a business here. How long did it take you to get a job after you left? I actually had a job before I left. You had used the word you were fearsome in

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Page 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. some fashion of some kind of action on the part of Mark Rohr against your family or brother or something like that that still lives here. What was that all about?

It wasn't so much fear, it was the recognition of how there are certain relationships that appeared to be obvious between the office I worked for and the media, and too many people of the press you could recognize very certain (inaudible) to the media that was very pro City Manager, which I know he's been grateful for and appreciative of, and I didn't know how it could evolve once the information came out about the note, and I didn't want to put my mother in that position, having to read that and being such a lifelong member of the community, and my brother is in upper administration in the electric company, the CEO of the electric company is very active in the PET project, sits on the board of the PET project of the City Manager. We all know

that when you live in a small town when you do anything with politics the mud never splatters strategically, there is a

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Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Q. A. Q. probability that could have some way affected them, and I just didn't want that to happen. Is that based on your understanding the way Mark Rohr has historically worked insofar as vindictiveness and stuff? His reactions to work product or his reactions to interaction with the City Council definitely led to that assumption, yes. So would you say that Mark creates an atmosphere of distrust and just basically a difficult environment to work within for its employees? I'd say any time that you have to sign off in order to get a pay raise on your work performance, that you will not talk to anyone about your work outside of your office, that you're making it abundantly clear to that employee that they better know their place and they better not step out of their place because you put it in a written document that there are consequences. Okay. And these consequences, you observed

them on other employees while you were working with the City?

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Page 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. A. Q. A. Q. Yes, I did. Okay. And this connection, what company was

it, the power company that you brother works for? That's correct. And you think that the President of the power company and Mark Rohr are somehow close associates? There is a Board of Directors called Connective Culture that is in the process, it's actually a really great project, getting a performing arts center in the entertainment district and that was a Board hand selected by the City Manager, and the Board President from the company that my brother works for is on that. They meet sometimes once a week and

have for almost 4 years. Okay. So you were would consider them close

friends? I would consider that he probably has more interaction with my brother's boss than he does with many other people, and if you get copies of the minutes you can tell, you can get copies of the minutes you can tell the dialogue between them is very friendly, very

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Q. A. A. Q. Q. A. Q. easy. They interact often and appear to be good friends or at least friends. And that's Empire District Electric? Yes. So basically you were fearsome that because of your knowledge of the way Mark operates and his vendettas and et cetera and so forth, you were worried about the fact that you had picked this note up and you didn't want any kind of retribution called down on your brother or your mother through either Empire District Electric or I guess through Lance Roberts, the Police Chief? That would be correct. Okay. I want to thank you for coming up and This has been an

helping us out on this.

interesting investigation. I'm so sorry that you had to look into it. I'm sorry it came to that. good will come out of it. Well, I hope so. I hope so. But certainly But maybe some

this will be important to my report and I do appreciate you coming forward on this. Absolutely. And if you think of anything else or you

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED) A. observe any retribution I'd ask you that you've got my cell number there, you keep that for the future. Okay. I will do it.

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REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

STATE OF MISSOURI ss. COUNTY OF JASPER I, SHARON K. ROGERS, Certified Court Reporter in the State of Missouri, do certify that pursuant to the foregoing Stipulation the witness came before me on the 5th day of December, 2013, was duly sworn by me, and was examined. That examination was then taken by me by

steno-mask recording and afterwards transcribed; said Sworn Statement is subscribed by the witness as hereinbefore set out on the day in that behalf aforesaid and is herewith returned. I further certify that I am not counsel, attorney, or relative of either party, or clerk, or stenographer of either party or of the attorney of either party, or otherwise interested in the event of this suit.

_________________________ SHARON K. ROGERS, CCR-650

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