Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 IN RE:
2 MICHELE MILLER,
Plaintiff,
3 v.
CITY of MEXICO BEACH,
4 FLORIDA, CITY COUNCIL,
5 Defendant.
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13 CONFIDENTIAL SWORN STATEMENT
14 SWORN STATEMENT OF: MICHELLE LUCAS
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DATE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
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17 LOCATION: VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE
(ZOOM)
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19 TRANSCRIBED BY: YVONNE LaFLAMME, RPR, FPR
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APEX REPORTING, INC.
23 P.O. BOX 5785
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32314
24 (850) 597-5185
apexreportingservices@gmail.com
25 www.tallycourtreporting.com
1 APPEARANCES:
2 For the Plaintiff:
3 JOHN BAILEY, INVESTIGATOR
Marie A. Mattox, P.A.
4 203 N. Gadsden Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
5 (850)383-4800
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1 I N D E X P A G E
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3 DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.
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5 MICHELLE LUCAS
6 Questions by MR. BAILEY 4
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9 **NO EXHIBITS MARKED**
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 MR. BAILEY: Okay. Do you have your driver's
3 license?
4 MS. LUCAS: I do, but actually, I'm on the
5 phone with you and my driver's license is in my
6 phone. But I know the number.
7 MR. BAILEY: Can you -- do you have a one with
8 you?
9 MS. LUCAS: Yeah. Hold on.
10 MR. BAILEY: You can just leave me there and
11 grab your ID, and I'll just get the stuff off the
12 phone.
13 MS. LUCAS: I've got it.
14 MR. BAILEY: All right. Can you show it to me
15 real quick? Michelle L. Lucas. And that is a,
16 what, ID? Back that up real quick?
17 MS. LUCAS: I'm sorry?
18 MR. BAILEY: What state is that in?
19 MS. LUCAS: Kentucky.
20 MR. BAILEY: Kentucky. Okay.
21 So my position at -- I work for Marie Mattox
22 as an investigator. I am not an attorney. I just
23 get cases and I take sworn statements if
24 individuals are willing to do that. You can leave
25 at any time. If there's a question you don't want
1 accounting.
2 MR. BAILEY: Okay. And what were you told
3 that this job entailed?
4 MS. LUCAS: I was told that this job entailed
5 pretty much the normal duties of a finance
6 director, which meant I would approve checks, that
7 I would be responsible for all of the taxes and all
8 of the legal documents that had to be prepared, and
9 then, of course, working with the auditors.
10 MR. BAILEY: Okay. And what -- I guess you
11 ran into some problems pretty quickly when you were
12 there with trying to get access to the software?
13 MS. LUCAS: Yes. It took me two weeks to get
14 my computer. Then when I did, I had no help
15 getting into the software. And then, finally,
16 Debbie gave me access to the software, but it was
17 only partial because there was a lot of things that
18 were grayed out that I could not look at.
19 MR. BAILEY: Okay. And did they give you the
20 access for you to carry out your job duties?
21 MS. LUCAS: The access was not open enough for
22 me to do my entire job.
23 MR. BAILEY: So, for instance, if you had to
24 look at an invoice for a check, did you have access
25 for it?
1 called Adrian.
2 MR. BAILEY: Okay. What was your conversation
3 with Adrian?
4 MS. LUCAS: I attempted to call him, and
5 that's when he texted me and told me that he was on
6 a plane, and he couldn't talk, but he was texting
7 back and forth.
8 MR. BAILEY: Okay. What did that conversation
9 entail with the text?
10 MS. LUCAS: It was regarding a federal form
11 that had to be done, or a state form that had to be
12 done, and it was supposed to be done at, like,
13 4:00 that day.
14 MR. BAILEY: Uh-huh.
15 MS. LUCAS: And I didn't find out about it
16 until the night before. And so he couldn't help me
17 because he was like two hours out of landing, which
18 was the 4:00 time frame. So that's when I called
19 Michael and I said, "You're going to have to find
20 someone to help me." And the time -- the mayor
21 actually called, I think she called Panama City but
22 I'm not sure. She had a clerk call me and was
23 going to try and help me walk through it. Well, I
24 just got a text from Michael saying that, "We've
25 got it completed."
1 CERTIFICATE
2
3 STATE OF FLORIDA )
COUNTY OF LEON )
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6 I, YVONNE LaFLAMME, RPR, FPR, certify that I
7 was authorized to and did stenographically transcribe
8 this written transcript from the playback of recording
9 of the foregoing statement of MICHELLE LUCAS; that I was
10 not present during the proceedings; and that the
11 foregoing transcript was transcribed and has been done
12 so to the best of my ability from what was clearly
13 audible.
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15 I further certify that I am not a relative,
16 employee, attorney, or counsel of any of the parties,
17 nor am I a relative or employee of any of the parties'
18 attorney or counsel connected with the action, nor am I
19 financially interested in the action.
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21 DATED this 25th day of SEPTEMBER, 2023.
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23 _________________________
24 YVONNE LaFLAMME, RPR, FPR
Court Reporter
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