Democratic Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz is scheduled to give videotaped testimony Wednesday morning in front of a camera — in a deposition, under questioning by the state Republican Party’s attorney, as part of the lawsuit that she has filed in hopes that a judge will declare her eligible to run for state attorney general.<\/p>\n
But now there apparently will be two cameras: In a move that the state GOP chairman called “bizarre,” she asked to bring her own professional videographer to train a camera on the GOP’s lawyer who will be questioning her, Eliot Gersten of Hartford.<\/p>\n
Bysiewicz’s lawyer, Wesley Horton of Hartford, filed a motion for a “protective order permitting plaintiff to videotape her deposition” Tuesday afternoon, and Gersten did not file an objection. In a deposition, a person gives sworn testimony that can be used in the eventual trial in a case. No trial date has been set in Bysiewicz’s Superior Court lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Horton argued in Tuesday’s motion that judges are allowed to permit any measures “which justice requires to protect a party from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression or undue burden of expense. … In this case there is good cause to enter such an order. The videographer for the Connecticut Republic Party, which is taking her deposition, apparently will be focusing solely” on Bysiewicz.<\/p>\n
Bysiewicz, he said, “believes that fairer coverage of the deposition would include a videotaping of the questioner as well as [Bysiewicz] so that the viewer can best gauge” her reactions. Horton said that another reason she should be able to bring her own videographer is “the intense public interest in this case and the likelihood that the videotape of her deposition will enter the public realm.”<\/p>\n
“A slanted, one-side picture of her deposition, the likely result if the camera shows only the plaintiff, thus has the potential to cause her to suffer ‘annoyance, embarrassment, or oppression’ by presenting her deposition testimony in an inaccurate or unfair manner,” Horton wrote.<\/p>\n
State Republican Chairman Chris Healy called Bysiewicz’s request “puzzling” and “just bizarre.”<\/p>\n
“This is our deposition,” intended to test her claim that she has enough experience as a lawyer to qualify under a state statute as eligible to run for attorney general, he said “Now, if she wants to waste her money so that she can have a ‘reverse angle,’ you know, it’s her money – but I think it’s telling: She thinks she’s in control of this thing, and she thinks the normal rules don’t apply for her.”<\/p>\n
Healy said that videotaped depositions are “standard operating procedure” these days, and “any lawyer with 10 years’ experience in the active practice of law would know that.”<\/p>\n
His last remark was a reference to Bysiewicz’s claim that her 11 years as secretary of the state should count as the “active practice” of law, even though one doesn’t need to be a lawyer to hold the office.<\/p>\n
A state statute requires that to serve as Connecticut attorney general, a person must have 10 years’ experience in the “active practice” of law in this state.<\/p>\n
Bysiewicz only worked in private legal practice for six years before winning election to her present office, so she has asked a Superior Court judge to declare that her years as secretary of the state count as practicing law. Or, she wants the judge to declare the 10-year requirement unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
The deposition, to be held in private, will be at Gersten’s office in Hartford Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n
The current attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, is not seeking re-election as he runs for the U.S. Senate. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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