Will the depositions of Mark Boughton and former HR director Carol DeSantie finally put the rumors to rest or create more questions than answers?

No thanks to the stonewalling tactics at City Hall, yours truly will have in his possession the transcript of the deposition Mayor Mark Boughton provided in her sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by his former personal secretary and friend Wendy DaCosta.

Along with Boughton's transcript, I will also have depositions from former HR director Carol DeSantie, former Deputy Manager of Personnel Julio Lopez, and Director of Public Works Antonio Iadarola.

I understand that there are many residents who are waiting anxiously to read the depositions of Boughton and DeSantie as rumors of an inappropriate relationship has dogged the mayor at least a decade.

News-Times: May 20 2005

Lawyer Jerry Leaphart, who represents the clerks, said he wants to learn if there's a pattern of sexual harassment at City Hall. That, he said, gives him the right to ask Mayor Mark Boughton about rumors the mayor had an affair with a former employee. Boughton vehemently denies any improprieties involving former personnel director Carol DeSantie, who abruptly left her post in December 2003, but was paid her salary of nearly $60,000 per year until the following July.

[...]

According to a copy of a deposition obtained by The News-Times, Christy Doyle, one of the lawyers for the city, had the following exchange with one of the clerks. Sources identified the clerk as Theresa Boccuzzi. Doyle: "Ÿ… well, first of all, who told you that Ms. DeSantie was seeing the mayor?" Clerk: "It was common knowledge around City Hall and anybody you talked to would know it." Doyle: "How did you find out?" Clerk: "Just gossip." Doyle: "By who?" Clerk: "People that work up there." Doyle: "You don't recall who?" Clerk: "No. Everybody was talking about it." In a press release issued Monday, Leaphart raised the issue of "improper sexual relationships" and "sexual improprieties."

Although this lawsuit isn't about whether or not Boughton had an extramarital affair. To the contrary, one of the points raised in the lawsuit centers on whether or not there has been an climate at City Hall where sexual harassment has taken place unchecked.

Complaint:

Due to legal reasons, I will not be able to publish the documents as soon as most people would like...but I do promise that they will be posted online. The News-Times has also obtained the depositions and will probably report on the content of the documents before I have a chance to make them available to the public. It's unclear if the newspaper will post the documents or summarize the content of the document.

To be continued...soon.

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Aug 25 2004: Council takes up personnel issue

More questions surface again about former personnel director

Do you know who this man is? If not, don't worry, most people have no idea that this individual is running against Mark Boughton since he's running a virtually non-existant mayoral campaign.

With a little over a week to go in what most consider one of the most pathetic municipal campaigns in recent memory (and a little over a year till the gubernatorial elections), since Paul McAllister is unable to stop embarassing himself with his remakably horrible run for mayor, I'm going to do what the challenger to Mark Boughton seems unable to do...hold the current mayor accountable for his over-inflated and dishonest record.

MORE TO COME!!!!!