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The man who built the case brought by the state in its trial of Auditor Kathy McGuiness took the stand Monday afternoon, the final witness prosecutors put on the stand in front of the jury before resting their case.
In the 8th day of proceedings--which kicked off the third week of the state's case--prosecutor Mark Denney walked Chief Special Investigator Frank Robinson through his acquisition of a variety of documents heretofore presented across a plethora of witnesses, tying together for the jury a timeline of how he'd come to know each piece of information which had been scattered throughout prior.
He also revealed a discovery he'd made that Elizabeth Saylar McGuiness had been listed in a state email system as "Public Information Officer" for the Office of the Auditor of Accounts up until August 18, 2021, when Kathy McGuiness had requested it be changed to "Intern."
He broke down initially receiving calls first from Laura Horsey, Kelsey Thomas, and Lisa Elder, noting the dates of their first conversations will be etched in his mind forever as it was the same day their was a shooting and standoff at the Veteran's Cemetery.
After speaking with Virginia Bateman via his work cellphone, Robinson told the jury McGuiness then called his phone from a blocked number. He knew this to be the case after obtaining Verizon phone records, which showed she called his cellphone.
Attempting to get ahead of a point defense attorney Steven Wood has touched on numerous times to this point--that Robinson had lied on his search warrant affidavit and lied under oath to a Grand Jury about the circumstances of the case in order to get permission to conduct portions of his investigation--Denney had Robinson walk the jury through how an investigation continues even after investigators feel they've collected enough evidence to warrant bringing a case and seeking out a judge to permit them further access.
Robinson described getting "twisted up" in his words, and admitting while he made some mistakes, they weren't intentional.
For continuing coverage of every development in the State v. Auditor Kathy McGuiness, find WDEL's story collection here.
Despite his attempts, Wood immediately started hammering him on the point, pointing to a May 24, 2022, transcript of testimony Robinson gave before presiding Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. during an evidence suppression hearing where he admitted then to previously making false statements.
Then Wood pulled out the search warrant and began breaking down what Robinson knew, or should have known based on information his team had, and when he knew it. While Robinson maintained information evolves as an investigation continues, but Wood had Robinson admit multiple lines in multiple paragraphs of the search warrant were false, and that at times Robinson or his team had evidence the claim made was incorrect but made it anyway.
For instance, huge sticking points about McGuiness allegedly having made multiple payments in a given month to try and hide them in August or that she broke up payments multiple times didn't necessarily happen, backed up by a list of vouchers from the Division of Accounting, and some of the mistakes made came at the approval of said division.
"That's because you wanted to use your version of events that was least favorable to Kathy McGuiness," Wood argued.
He noted they never asked Christie Gross, owner and operator of My Campaign Group and Innovate Consulting, for her bank statements, which show the number of payments she received and when, adding its a process he should've been familiar with as Elizabeth Saylar McGuiness's bank records had been obtained.
Cross-examination took proceedings to the end of the day, which mean, despite the state's best estimations, they would not rest their case until at least Tuesday. The hope had been the state would rest Monday and the defense would be able to argue their case quickly enough to hand the case off for a decision before week's end.
The 9th day of proceedings against McGuiness, charged with official misconduct, conflict of interest, structuring, felony theft, and felony act of intimidation, would pick up at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 27, 2022. Carpenter reiterated he was very concerned about the approaching July 4th weekend, with a three-day break meaning greater potential exposure to news for jurors, and an abuse of the time they'd committed to their civic duty, having been initially quoted a far speedier trial.
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