Private investigator in Greitens case invokes Fifth Amendment in new deposition

A private investigator hired by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to work on Governor Eric Greitens’ cases invoked the Fifth Amendment throughout a new deposition on Thursday.

Attorneys for Greitens re-deposed William Don Tisaby, a former FBI agent, after he failed to turn over evidence in a timely way and allegedly lied under oath in his first deposition. Judge Rex Burlison ordered the new deposition as part of the defense’s request for sanctions against prosecutors.

Tisaby’s attorney, Jermaine Wooten, said his client invoked his right against self-incrimination throughout the two-hour deposition in the St. Louis city courthouse. Attorneys twice tried to depose Tisaby, revisiting Burlison’s courtroom throughout the morning. Wooten said Tisaby fielded about 200 questions from defense attorney Scott Rosenblum, but invoked the Fifth Amendment for each of them.

Rosenblum told Burlison in one courtroom exchange that they would seek to keep witnesses Tisaby spoke to from testifying at trial due to his conduct. That could include Greitens’ former mistress, who accused him of taking a photo of her without her consent while she was partially nude.

“This perjury…has affected everything he’s touched,” Rosenblum said.

Assistant prosecutor Robert Steele said the defense team has never proven that Tisaby’s work tainted any of the prospective witnesses for the trial.

Burlison also denied the defense team’s request to depose Roy Temple, the former head of Missouri’s Democratic Party. The mistress’s ex-husband told investigators he spoke to Temple about his recorded conversation with her about the affair. Temple’s attorney, Joseph Bednar, said Temple had no material evidence to give about the case. Temple has denied ever paying the ex-husband to tell the story of the affair.