http://www.examiner.com/a-1123208~AG_s_motion_seeks_to_block_witness__testimony_in_GOP_suit.html

AG's motion seeks to block witness' testimony in GOP suit

The Associated Press

The Baltimore Examiner, December 25, 2007

The state Attorney General's Office is seeking to block testimony by a key witness in a lawsuit challenging $1.3 billion in tax increases passed during the General Assembly's special session last month.

House of Delegates chief clerk Mary Monahan is scheduled to give a deposition on Thursday in Tampa, Fla., The Washington Times reported Tuesday. But the emergency motion filed on Monday in the Court of Special Appeals by lawyers representing the state seeks to protect her from testifying.

"What does the state have to hide?" asked Irwin Kramer, who is representing the six Republicans and a Carroll County businessman in the suit. "Obviously, the state wants to insure that we never talk to Mrs. Monahan."

Last week, Kramer told Carroll County Circuit Judge Thomas Stansfield that Monahan's testimony is essential to his case, but she appeared to have "left the jurisdiction" and had been unreachable for deposition. Stansfield, who had ruled that Monahan could not be barred from testifying, postponed the case until Jan. 4.

The Attorney General's Office argues that forcing Monahan to testify violates the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches. A three-judge panel will hear the motion, but no date has been set, according to a Court of Special Appeals spokesman.

The plaintiffs see Monahan, who records and validates House proceedings, as a key witness in the suit that charges that the Senate took too long of a break during last month's special session without permission from the House.

Assistant Attorney General Austin Schlick told Stansfield last week that Monahan's deposition was "irrelevant" and immaterial to the legislative process.

The GOP is arguing that a provision in the state constitution barring one chamber of the General Assembly from adjourning for more than three days without permission of the other chamber means that the $1.3 billion tax package signed into law by Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley is invalid. The suit seeks to block higher taxes taking effect Jan. 1.

In Kramer's motion to delay the case last week, he cited a letter from the attorney general's office to Monahan's lawyer, David Thompson, that says an FBI agent who wants to meet with Monahan "is out until Jan. 3." Kramer also wrote in the motion that Thompson indicated Monahan would not be available for a deposition because of "pre-existing vacation plans."