A St. Louis County Prosecutor has resigned after allegations of him inappropriately texting a paralegal in his office became public knowledge. John Quarenghi, 48, originally left his job as a team leader in the office of Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCullough in December after learning that federal investigators would be searching through his private messages as part of a federal bribery investigation according to the San Francisco Chronicle .
The bribery investigation revolved around paralegal Jillian Nichols, 26, who was indicted in a Federal court in St. Louis on February 19 according to St. Louis Today . Reports state that Nichols was accused of “promising a sexual assault defendant that she could get him favoritism from an unnamed prosecutor for $10,000”.
Reports state that while Quarenghi isn’t a target of the bribery investigation, his lawyer has said that Quarenghi stepped down in December in order to avoid embarrassing the office. According to the Kansas City Star , U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan declined to identify the prosecutor involved in the case with Nichols but said that person “was completely innocent with regard to the bribery issue.”
Quarenghi’s attorney, Neil Bruntager, said that his client was informed of the investigation on December 13, 2013 and immediately wrote up his resignation, which was accepted on December 23, 2013. Reports state that Quarenghi and Nichols did have a relationship outside of work that allegedly became “intimate” in nature, though his attorney has said that Quarenghi was unaware of any possible intentions that may have included him in the bribery investigation.
“We know he never did anything wrong. Either illegal or unethical,” Bruntager said. “He had no idea what her intentions were.”
The relationship between the two allegedly began after Quarenghi sent Nichols a congratulatory email upon learning she had left her job with attorney Robert Herman five months ago according to San Francisco Chronicle . From there, messages between the two slowly became more mature, though Bruntager states that they were all initiated by Nichols. The first email lead to lunch, which was later followed up by happy-hour dates and eventually led to intimate text messages between the two, which included an exchange of photographs.
“The texting became more intimate, but it was initiated by her,” said Bruntager. “This isn’t Anthony Weiner. This isn’t somebody sending texts unsolicited.”
Even though John Quarenghi has not been accused of being involved in the bribery case, he said he chose to resign so he wouldn’t embarrass the office by his actions with Jillian Nichols. Quarenghi has since taken a new job as a prosecutor and on Monday Nichols pleaded not guilty to her charges of wire fraud and lying to the FBI .
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