Thomas Edward Carew Assignment at Stinson in 2005, Part 1

by Kelly Ann Christensen
 The day after Memorial Day 2005, I started an assignment through Secretary-at-Law working for Tom Carew at Stinson Morrison Hecker. Brianne gave me a $500 bonus for agreeing to take the assignment for one month. Once I was there, she would not let me out — by telling me she did not have anything else. I had completed an assignment for SMH the previous summer, including working in their Crown Center office during their move to the downtown building at 10th and Walnut. It was at my desk in the Crown Center office, where I received the telephone from JoAnn (Mize, Mackey) LaTourneau in July 2004, telling me in the middle of the day that my mother not only had terminal lung cancer, but also only had two months to live. I barely even saw the attorney I was working for, not do I recall do any work for him during those weeks and months. However, I thought I was establishing another ongoing professional relationship with another local firm when I returned to Stinson to work for Tom Carew.
 
 When I started this assignment working for Tom Carew my mother’s small cell lung cancer was in remission after being treated by Liberty Hospital. Theresa Mercer was on the desk. She had only been covering the desk for two days and she was a nervous wreck. She shared with me that she was grieving her daughter’s death, who I believe was her only child, while Tom Carew kept yelling at her. When I took over the desk, Theresa moved to the Corporate Woods Stinson office according to their intranet. It was located at 10975 Benson Drive, Suite 550. This was consistent with what Brianne has told me about Tom, he yells.
 
 According to office rumor Tom Carew had gone through 22 assistants in the two years prior to my assignment and employment at SMH in May of 2005. His situation was also grim in that if he lost another assistant he would be fired. In person at the time, Tom verbally agreed with the last half of this statement (that he would be fired if he lost another assistant), but denied the first half stating he had had one assistant for 7 years. 
 
 Tom Carew had a terrible reputation around the firm. No one said “good morning” to him when he came in in the morning. Some were even afraid of him as the gossip about him whirled around me from every direction. There was one woman who had a document for him who handed it to me because she said he was afraid to even give it to him herself. I thought at the time maybe the gossip has just gotten out of control due to his yelling. I did not dream there was an attorney practicing law in what was at the time one of if not the biggest firm in this city.
 
 If he escalated I was to report to HR, then they would let me go home for the day. After the first time or two, I was then told based on my own judgment; if he escalated I could leave for the day without reporting to HR. There was a total of four times he escalated and I left for the day.
 
 As the assignment progressed, I was drugged unbeknownst to me at the time. It was intentionally to cause a person to share their deepest secrets in order that those secrets might be used against the targeted person. I do not really have any secrets like that, but two situations were discussed: the death of the late Greg Schrader and the situation that occurred years prior with Brianne, SHB and the judge.

Greg NMN Schrader, step-father, shot and killed by KCK police in 1990.

Brianne, SHB and the Judge