Dardenne Prairie mayor to fight back against allegations of stalking, harassment

About the same time the Christmas snow storm swept through the area, a media storm erupted when it became publicized that the wife of a contractor to the city of Dardenne Prairie named Mayor Pam Fogarty in an order of protection petition.

A hearing, initially set for Jan. 13 in 11^th Circuit Court, St. Charles, will allow evidence from the two parties to determine if the judge will issue an order of protection, according to Fogarty’s attorney Michael Shea.

Also called a restraining order, an order of protection is an official legal document signed by a judge limiting the individual named in the complaint from access to the party filing the petition. 

The chain of alleged events leading up to the Jan. 13 hearing dates back to 2007 when Tim Short’s company, Studio One Architecture, St. Charles, contracted with Dardenne Prairie to serve as the city’s architect and project manager for construction of the new City Hall building he had designed.

Claims by and on behalf of Lisa Short, Tim Short’s wife, indicate Fogarty stalked her and disrupted a reconciliation of their marriage. Fogarty has denied the allegations.

On Oct. 24, while on the job, Tim Short sustained massive injures in a fall from the roof of City Hall which left him hospitalized with multiple fractures, eye and brain injuries to the extent he was in a coma and a state of legal limbo.

During the summer of 2009, Mayor Fogarty and Tim Short began a relationship. Fogarty said she split from her husband Ron in 2008 and was preparing to file for divorce at that time. Tim Short, she said, was estranged from his wife.

On Oct. 8, 2009, Tim Short’s wife, Lisa Marie Short, filed for divorce.

On Oct. 24, the accident occurred when a gust of wind caught the plywood Tim Short was holding and, acting as a sail, carried him off the side of the two-story building, onto the pavement.

First taken to SSM St. Joseph’s Hospital, St. Charles, he was transported by air to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, downtown St. Louis. There, treatment began to address his various injuries and where, for two weeks, he remained in a coma, according to his mother, Joan Short, of O’Fallon.

Three days after the accident, on Oct. 27, Lisa Short dropped the dissolution of marriage proceedings. Then, on Nov. 12, she filed a claim of guardian and conservatorship over Tim Short based on his incapacitation. Lisa Short’s attorney, Amy Gervich, is with the Clayton law firm of Hart, Boedefelt and Gervich.

Then, according to Dardenne Prairie legal counsel David Hamilton, another attorney with the same law firm, Alexandra Hart, authored a letter to the city listing items owned by Tim Short, including a computer, hand tools, a Bob Cat excavation machine and trailer. As Tim Short’s property, the letter notified City Hall, Lisa Short intended to retrieve the items.

Hamilton said the letter was not accompanied by documentation verifying Lisa Short’s status as Tim Short’s guardian.

“Without the appropriate documentation, I just didn’t feel comfortable advising the city to release the property,” Hamilton said. To confirm Lisa Short’s guardianship, Hamilton, in writing, requested Hart to provide written proof of conservatorship. As of Jan 7, Hamilton had yet to receive a written response to the request.

Hamilton also authored another letter – two, in fact – to Studio One Architecture asking if the company would be able to meet its contractual obligations with the city. While the City Hall building is substantially complete, the scope of the project includes construction of an amphitheatre, activity park and concession stand to serve as volleyball courts and game areas with the Dardenne Prairie Athletic Assn. baseball field adjacent to the City Hall property. 

Hamilton’s second letter was more specific, asking if the company would be able to assign another architect to oversee the remainder of the project.

Shortly after these letters were sent, Lisa Short’s spokesman made statements indicating the city had terminated its contract with Tim Short and attempted to block workman’s compensation coverage.

“The city never terminated the contract,” said Mayor Fogarty. Nor does Tim Short’s status with the city meet the definition of employee.

However, the city did notify its insurance carrier of the accident in early December.

“There was not contract termination and the city has taken no action on worker’s compensation benefits or any other claim for benefits,” Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Tim Short has been transferred to a rehabilitation facility with the St. John’s medical group. There, according to Joan Short, her son is beginning to show improvement.

“He can talk a little bit now and understands everything you say,” Joan Short said. “He can walk with the therapists helping him but not by himself yet.”

As to the charges pending against her, Fogarty said she is prepared to refute every allegation.

“I want to be clear here,” Fogarty said. “I have done nothing wrong. Tim has done nothing wrong. We have done nothing wrong.”
Fogarty and her estranged husband have been in mediation for over a year in preparation for the dissolution of marriage petition she filed Dec. 2, 2009.

“Both of our marriages were over and I have only seen Lisa (Short) one time – right after the accident,” Fogarty said. “What she is saying I did, I did not do.”

Claims by and on behalf of Lisa Short indicate Fogarty stalked her and disrupted a reconciliation.

“Tim and I are very close,” Joan Short said. “He confided in me. Their marriage has been over for three years and going down longer than that. They were under the same roof living separately.

“His wife never even went and looked at City Hall,” said Joan Short, of the award-winning building. In 2009, Dardenne Prairie City Hall was named as one of only eight LEED-certified structures in the region, meeting high industry guidelines for renewable resource, energy-efficient and architectural design standards. 

“She (Lisa Short) was never interested in any of his work,” Joan Short said.

Joan Short also verified that, to her knowledge, her son and Fogarty were “very, very good friends.” She had met Fogarty at the City Hall ground breaking ceremony in 2008 and was pleased by Fogarty’s enthusiasm for her son’s skills as an architect.

“Pam is so interested in his work. She complements him,” said Joan Short. “But the thing that has to be addressed is that most of the stuff on TV and printed in the paper was not true.

“I don’t understand Lisa,” Joan Short said. “I don’t understand her motives. She’s out to destroy my son. This news coverage is the worse thing a so-called loving wife could do to her husband. I’m appalled by it.”

MRN received no response to multiple attempts to reach attorneys Alexandra Hart and Amy Gervich for comment on this story.