skouby, jacob | vol (investigation-11/19/13)

8/12/2019 Skouby, Jacob | Vol (Investigation-11/19/13)

1/12

Transcript of the Testimony of Jacob Skouby

Date:November 19, 2013Volume:I

Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

Printed On: December 1, 2013

Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.Phone: 417-358-4078

Fax: 417-451-1114Email:[email protected]

Internet:


2/12

Jacob Skouby In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

417-358-4078Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.

Page 1

IN RE: JOPLIN CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

TELEPHONE SWORN STATEMENT OF

JACOB SKOUBY

Taken on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, from 3:10 p.m. to 3:16

p.m., at the law offices of Juddson H. McPherson, LLC, 626

S. Byers, in the City of Joplin, County of Jasper, State of

Missouri, before

SHARON K. ROGERS, C.C.R.650,

a Certified Court Reporter and a Notary Public within and

for the County of Jasper, and State of Missouri.


3/12



Page 2

APPEARANCES

MR. THOMAS E. LORAINE

Loraine & Associates, LLC

4075 Osage Beach Pkwy., Suite 300

Osage Beach, MO 65065

[email protected]


4/12



Page 3

S T I P U L A T I O N

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED that this Sworn

Statement may be taken by steno-mask type recording by

SHARON K. ROGERS, a Certified Court Reporter, and

afterwards reduced into typewriting.

It is further stipulated the signature of the witness is

hereby waived, and that said Sworn Statement of said

witness shall be of the same force and effect as though

said witness had read and signed Sworn Statement.


5/12



Page 4

I N D E X

Page/Line

DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE . . . 5-2

E X H I B I T S

(sic) - typed as spoken

(ph.) - phonetic


6/12



Page 5

1 JACOB SKOUBY

2 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE:

3 Q. This is Tom Loraine.

4 A. Yes, sir.

5 Q. I've been appointed as the Critical

6 Investigator for the City of Joplin. I

7 assume you've heard that. I don't know if

8 you have or not.

9 A. I have. I was familiar with it, yes.

10 Q. Well, there's two things I wanted to talk to

11 you about. The first is a light matter, I

12 think, but as a county prosecutor do you know

13 anything that I should look at given my

14 topics? The topics are number one, anything

15 about Bill Scearce and his alleged gambling;

16 number two, Woolston and his alleged land

17 dealing; and the third is anything that the

18 City management might be doing improperly or

19 unethically or illegally. Those are the

20 three topics I've been assigned.

21 A. Well, I don't know of any. I know both Bill

22 and Mike and I think, I mean I don't know of

23 any wrongdoing. I've never heard of any

24 wrongdoing involving either one of them.

25 Q. So there is nothing that you're aware of as a


7/12



Page 6

1 prosecutor?

2 A. Not personally or in a professional manner,

3 no, nobody has ever come to me.

4 Q. Okay. I appreciate that very much. The

5 other thing is I wanted to know, your name

6 was given to me and I'm an Elk in Osage Beach

7 so I know how those things go, you know, but

8 I'm told that you were somehow involved in a

9 purchase of the Elks woodland property after

10 it was no longer a woodland.

11 A. Correct. I'm Exalted Ruler this year so

12 until April I should sign off on that thing

13 because our trustees did, but yeah, I was

14 involved in negotiating it and reading it on

15 the floor and bringing it in front of the

16 members to vote on it.

17 Q. Was the price a proper price in your opinion?

18 A. In my opinion it was. I was told that was

19 the going price. We had some realtors that

20 are members, they thought we should hold out

21 for more, but, you know, we had --

22 Q. They didn't have the listing.

23 A. Right, they didn't have the listing. And it

24 just seemed like good money for the rest of

25 it, we had some debt and a mortgage on our


8/12



Page 7

1 new building, our old building got taken out

2 by the tornado so we built a new building and

3 we had some debt. It was a good deal for us,

4 but I don't think he paid us anymore than -

5 he being Gary Box - I don't think he paid us

6 anymore than he paid anybody else.

7 Q. Who negotiated the deal on behalf of the

8 City?

9 A. We never dealt with the City.

10 Q. Oh, okay.

11 A. I mean it was private property. It was our

12 property in the back, it belonged to the Elks

13 in the back. We had 5, almost 6 acres back

14 there that was woodland, but the tornado took

15 out a bunch of the trees and then we

16 bulldozed a bunch of the trees and the

17 barrier back there and, you know, we weren't

18 using the land for anything so when they made

19 the offer we jumped on it.

20 Q. So the land, it was $3.00 a square foot I am

21 understating? If you know.

22 A. We had two offers. One to keep it a green

23 space and one to build houses on it, and I

24 don't have the paperwork in front of me, but

25 it was right around 3,000 square foot, yeah.


9/12



Page 8

1 Q. Okay. Did you deal with any other Elk

2 members that might be on the City Council on

3 this matter?

4 A. No, I think we have two others - I know Bill

5 is a member and I think --

6 Q. That would be Scearce?

7 A. Yeah, Bill Scearce is a member out there as

8 is --

9 Q. Mr. Golden?

10 A. Right, right, right. He never ever had

11 anything to do with it. They never tried to

12 - no, they were never in the negotiation of

13 it. We were on our side. Wallace-Bajjali,

14 they were trying to also get the land to our

15 southwest to get access, but those people

16 wouldn't sell, they wanted a ridiculous

17 amount of money so they needed our land we

18 were told for the green space, and then they

19 had to buy, get an easement to get from the

20 land for east on the property. They also

21 wanted access from the west on Adele Street

22 so Wallace-Bajjali also bought some land from

23 I think Satterlee's. I believe they owned

24 it.

25 Q. As far as you understand --


10/12



Page 9

1 A. Wallace-Bajjali gave them the same they gave

2 us. They assured us that we weren't getting

3 less.

4 Q. As far as you understand Woolston was not

5 involved with any of your transaction?

6 A. Correct, he didn't have anything to do with

7 it. We dealt directly with Wallace-Bajjali

8 through their employee, Gary Box.

9 Q. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry for taking

10 your time, I'm just trying to follow-up every

11 lead, you know, so I don't get criticized,

12 you know.

13 A. Yeah, yeah, there's going to be criticism

14 whatever. I mean that's the way it works.

15 If they're not in jail there are going to be

16 people that thinks there's cover-ups.

17 Q. Absolutely.

18 A. That's just the way it is.

19 Q. Well, I just want to follow-up every lead I

20 can. I really thank you very much for your

21 help.

22 A. All right. If anything else comes up don't

23 hesitate to call.

24 Q. All right. Thank you, sir.

25 (SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED)


11/12



Page 10

1


12/12



Page 11

REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

STATE OF MISSOURI

ss.

COUNTY OF JASPER

I, SHARON K. ROGERS, Certified Court Reporter in the

State of Missouri, do certify that pursuant to the

foregoing Stipulation the witness came before me on the

19th day of November, 2013, was duly sworn by me, and was

examined. That examination was then taken by me by

steno-mask recording and afterwards transcribed; said Sworn

Statement is subscribed by the witness as hereinbefore set

out on the day in that behalf aforesaid and is herewith

returned.

I further certify that I am not counsel, attorney, or

relative of either party, or clerk, or stenographer of

either party or of the attorney of either party, or

otherwise interested in the event of this suit.

________________________

SHARON K. ROGERS, CCR-650

skouby, jacob | vol (investigation-11/19/13)

Documents