EAST ST. LOUIS – Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Chester Mental Health officials ruined their defense in an employment suit by forfeiting the right to depose anyone or start any discovery.
Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel imposed those sanctions on Oct. 7, on a motion from plaintiff Angela Cowell.
Rosenstengel gave assistant attorney general Thomas Ewick 30 days to meet the state’s discovery obligations or face default judgment.
Ewick had excused a lack of response to Cowell’s discovery requests by declaring himself too busy and listing nine cases in other courts that he was involved with.
Carbondale lawyer Shari Rhode filed Cowell’s suit last year against the hospital and administrator Travis Nottmeier.
Rhode claimed Cowell reported a medical director’s abuse and retaliation to Nottmeier and he rebuked her.
She claimed the state finally terminated the medical director but Nottmeier took adverse actions against Cowell.
She named chief social worker Jaima Klausing and labor relations decision maker Jessica Lawson as second and third defendants.
She claimed all three eliminated Cowell’s duties, excluded her from meetings, and humiliated her in front of others.
She claimed they reminded her they could easily replace her.
The state moved to dismiss, asserting sovereign immunity.
Rosenstengel denied the motion on March 30, finding Cowell alleged a plausible claim that defendants acted with malice.
She found the allegations created an inference of personal animosity, that sovereign immunity doesn’t protect a state agent when a plaintiff alleges that the agent violated law or exceeded authority, and that some alleged actions were certainly outside the scope of official function.
On that date Rhode moved to compel production of overdue discovery.
Ewick opposed the motion on April 7, stating he indicated to plaintiffs on March 15 that he hoped to complete responses by March 21.
“The undersigned is working with his clients on completing responses to the discovery request but due to his work schedule has been unable to complete them on time," Ewick wrote.
He claimed he was busy with motions, hearings, and depositions for three cases in Central Illinois district court, two in Sangamon County, one each in Madison, St. Clair and Brown counties, and one in civil service commission.
Rosenstengel ordered production on April 28 and nothing happened.
Rhode moved to sanction Nottmeier, Klausing, and Lawson on May 16, asking Rosenstengel for default judgment on liability.
On May 31, Ewick wrote that he conferred several times with his clients but it took significant time to secure the records.
He claimed he and his clients acted in good faith but they didn’t complete responses due to the amount of requests and his schedule.
He claimed he provided 1,178 pages of documents earlier that day.
He separately moved to extend discovery deadlines.
Rhode moved for sanctions again on June 20, claiming discovery failures prevented Cowell from pursuing her case.
She claimed Cowell couldn’t take depositions or file a dispositive motion.
She claimed an extension would cause discrimination and retaliation to continue.
Ewick didn’t respond.
On Aug. 4 Rhode moved for an order deeming the lack of response to the motion as an admission of its merits.
Ewick didn’t respond.
At a hearing on Oct. 6, Rhode proposed to sanction defendants by prohibiting initiation of any discovery.
Rosenstengel adopted the proposal and reopened Cowell’s discovery for 30 days so defendants could meet their obligations.
She denied the state’s extension motion as moot.
She ordered the state to pay Rhode $1,350 for time she spent on sanctions.
She stated she’d set a conference to discuss next steps towards resolution.