Phil was so impassioned that beads of perspiration speckled his temples. Katheryn was stoic and controlled. And the grand jury was late and the soft-spoken U.S. Attorney was apologetic for keeping reporters hanging around three hours past schedule.
Those are some impressions from a bizarre few hours Thursday evening as a grand jury at 5:50 p.m. returned indictments against former Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields, her husband, Phil Cardarella, and nine others related to the sale of the couple's home. The grand jury had been expected to return the indictment at 2:30 p.m. and the announcement was set for 3 p.m.
Why the delay?
Well, that was a big point of contention between Shields and Cardarella and U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman. Mid-morning, reporters began calling Cardarella about a rumor flying around that a major public figure would be indicted Thursday afternoon but it would be unrelated to his or her official duties. Cardarella said he couldn't imagine that it would be Shields.
However, unknown to the reporters was that Cardarella and Shields had received target letters on Nov. 17. (Later Thursday, they said the letters were personally delivered by an FBI agent at their new home about an hour after they left the closing in question. Cardarella said the target letter was dated prior to Nov. 17.)
Cardarella said he reached Curtis Woods, Shields' attorney and now also Cardarella's, before lunch Thursday. Woods knew nothing but said he would check on it. Shortly thereafter, Woods learned that they both would be indicted.
The couple, their attorney and Schlozman agree that sometime early afternoon Woods and Cardarella called asking/demanding/pleading/requesting/ that Cardarella appear before the grand jury that day. Schlozman had not intended to have either appear, saying he was not required to do so. But he said he conveyed Cardarella's request to the grand jury members, who then indicated they wanted to hear from him.
Schlozman said he called Woods' office at 1:50 p.m. and left a message saying he was prepared to have Cardarella appear. Schlozman maintains, "Mr. Woods never returned my call so there was no opportunity."
Woods vehemently denies this.
He said he got a message from Schlozman indicating he was returning his call, but nothing was said about allowing Cardarella to appear. Woods said he tried to reach Schlozman but that Schlozman's secretary indicated he was unavailable and sent him into Schlozman's voice mail. Woods said he left a message and that he never heard back from Schlozman.
Later, announcing the indictments, Schlozman accused Shields and Cardarella of "pure unadulterated greed." The couple and their attorney accused Schlozman of a political witch hunt intended to thwart Shields' mayoral aspirations. (Ironically or not depending on which side of the fence you are on, she had planned to kick her campaign into high gear this week via her Web site and a TV ad buy and was going to file her petitions Friday. Obviously Shields never imagined she would have mayoral ads appearing on the same 6 p.m. newscasts that were announcing her indictment.)
Schlozman says the timing of the indictment had nothing to do with her mayoral campaign.
The couple thinks it had everything to do with it. Cardarella says the lead picture and story in Friday's paper would have been the senatorial swearing-in of favorite daughter Claire McCaskill. He says the indictments changed that. (Dear reader, you can judge for yourself.)
This is at least the third investigation of Shields. So the question lots of folks have is whether Schlozman is done with her. He says he never comments on potential or ongoing investigations. And Shields and Cardarella say they have no idea.
Posted by DeAnn Smith