ST. LOUIS — The Los Angeles Rams and National Football League want to hear from St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones as part of the city's lawsuit over the team's 2016 move.
But Jones is resisting sitting for a deposition, saying she doesn't understand why the defendants in the case want her testimony. They requested she appear for a deposition on Friday. But Jones on Jan. 26 asked a judge in the case to enter a protective order quashing the subpoena that sought her testimony. The judge, Christopher McGraugh, hasn't ruled on the matter.
Jones' filing, made by attorney Chuck Hatfield, says she asked the defendants why they're seeking her testimony but that they "refused to provide such information." The filing argues Jones "has obligations that will not allow her to spend her time sitting for a deposition in a case in which she is not a party and does not have any knowledge that will add anything to the body of evidence already amassed in this multi-year litigation..."
"We had no involvement in any stadium negotiations or any decision-making capacity," Jones Chief of Staff Jared Boyd said Tuesday. "Her duties weren't really impacted by the Rams' decision to stay or leave. We don't have any garages that are that close to the stadium."
"Furthermore, we don't enforce meters on Sunday," when the Rams would typically play games downtown, Boyd said. The treasurer's office handles parking operations in the city.
But in 2015, Jones did voice opposition to a public financing package that was ultimately passed by the Board of Aldermen to try to build the Rams a new Mississippi riverfront stadium, an effort abandoned when the team moved. The entire public tab was to come to more than $560 million.
Still, "I would say it's a stretch to implicate the treasurer in any kind of substantive way," Boyd said. "She didn't have the opportunity to vote on the matter or influence the matter in an official capacity."
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