By Ben Striker, Clayton Times
The St. Louis attorney representing the ex-husband of a woman who had an extramarital affair with Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has filed a motion to quash a subpoena from the defense team and issue a protective order against the governor.
According to the motion filed by attorney Al Watkins, the ex-husband was issued a subpoena on Tuesday commanding him to appear in the city of St. Louis and testify under oath in a deposition requested by the governor’s defense attorney, James G. Martin, on Monday, March 26.
Watkins said in the filing the man is “aware of the fact that the Defendant Governor is a former Navy SEAL with a penchant for emoting, if not overtly promoting, that, as a Navy SEAL, he is possessed of a skill set that is appropriately worthy of genuine fear.”
The filing requests that Greitens not be allowed to attend the ex-husband’s deposition and that the judge block the governor from intimidating the man in any way.
Watkins added in the motion the defense “unreasonably failed to take steps to avoid undue burden or expense” on his client, and “failed to comply with the Missouri Rules of Civil Procedure.”
Watkins went on to say that the ex-husband has been subjected to acts of the governor that “constitute nothing short of the reckless destruction of the integrity” of his client’s marriage, and that the governor’s actions not only compromised the integrity of their marriage but also “thwarted two separate subsequent efforts to reconcile and thereby save their marriage.”
The motion also states the ex-husband was never present during the affair and that he only recorded conversations with his then-wife in an effort to reconcile the marriage.
“Knowledge of (the ex-husband) with respect to malicious details relating to his then wife’s fornication with and vulgar victimization by the Defendant Governor, the violent aspects corresponding thereto, and the disgraceful characterization of the former spouse thereafter are a function of confessional conversations and undertakings relating to subsequent efforts to reconcile and were part of ongoing efforts to heal their marriage.”
The motion comes nearly two weeks after Watkins called out some supporters of Gov. Greitens for “slut-shaming” the woman involved in the extramarital affair that lies at the center of the investigation into the Republican governor.
Watkins held a press conference at the Jefferson City Police Department on March 9 less than two hours before his client was scheduled to testify before the Missouri House’s investigatory committee.
During the press conference, he said that supporters of the governor had been slinging mud at the woman, casting her in a negative light and attacking her credibility. He said he was speaking out against them because of his client’s children with the woman.
The governor was indicted on a first-degree felony invasion of privacy charge for an incident that took place on March 21, 2015, in the City of St. Louis.
The charge is related to the affair the governor admitted to having in 2015, in which he allegedly took a picture of a bound and partially nude woman with whom he was having an affair with at the time and threatened to blackmail her if she made the affair public.
He has acknowledged an extramarital affair but denied criminal wrongdoing.
The judge presiding over the Gov. Eric Greitens’ trial for invasion of privacy denied the defense team’s request to move the trial up by more than a month on Wednesday.
The defense team for the governor hoped to have the case held in two weeks on April 3, rather than the original hearing scheduled for May 14 before Circuit Judge Rex Burlison.
