1 STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT 2 COUNTY OF BLUE EARTH FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT Case Type: Civil 3 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5 Timothy J. McGowan, Case No. 09-CV-00-0000 6 Plaintiff, 7 vs. 8 McGowan Reporting, LLC, 9 Defendant. 10 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11 12 13 Deposition of 14 TIMOTHY J. McGOWAN 15 January 1, 2009 16 9:00 a.m. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Reported by: Timothy J. McGowan, McGowan Reporting, LLC 24 230 Westwood Drive, Mankato, Minnesota 56001-2243 office: 507-344-8194 fax: 507-344-2126 25 e-mail: Admin@McGowanReporting.com TIMOTHY McGOWAN - JANUARY 1, 2009 ^pg. 2 1 Deposition of TIMOTHY J. McGOWAN, 2 taken pursuant to Subpoena and taken before Timothy 3 J. McGowan, a Notary Public in and for the County 4 of Blue Earth and State of Minnesota, at the 5 offices of McGowan Reporting, LLC, 230 Westwood 6 Drive, Mankato, Minnesota, on the 1st day of 7 January, 2009, commencing at approximately 8 9:00 a.m. 9 * * * * 10 APPEARANCES: 11 Representing the Plaintiff: 12 James B. Shield, Esquire Shield Law Firm, PA 13 123 First Street Mankato, Minnesota 56001-0000 14 phone: 507-555-2345 fax: 507-555-6789 15 e-mail: James@erehwon.com 16 Representing the Defendant: 17 John A. Questioner, Esquire 18 Pryer & Questioner, PA 123 Main Street 19 Mankato, Minnesota 56001-0000 phone: 507-555-1234 20 fax: 507-555-5678 e-mail: John@erehwesle.com 21 22 23 24 25 TIMOTHY McGOWAN - JANUARY 1, 2009 ^pg. 3 1 INDEX 2 EXAMINATION: 3 By Mr. Questioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 By Mr. Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5 REQUESTS: 6 For information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . None 7 For production 8 Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9 To mark transcript . . . . . . . . . . . . . None 10 OBJECTIONS: 11 By Mr. Shield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 12 By Mr. Questioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . None 13 14 EXHIBITS: 15 1: 2009 McGowan Reporting calendar . . . . . . . . 7 16 2: McGowan Reporting St. Patrick's Day card . . . 8 17 3: 12/07/08 6:39 p.m. printout of McGowanReporting.com home page . . . . . . . . 10 18 * * * * 19 WHEREUPON, the following proceedings were had: * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. QUESTIONER ^pg. 4 1 TIMOTHY J. McGOWAN, 2 having been first duly sworn, 3 testified as follows: 4 5 EXAMINATION 6 BY MR. QUESTIONER: 7 Q. Mr. McGowan, my name is John Questioner. I have a 8 few questions for you. 9 Please state your full name. 10 A. Timothy John McGowan. 11 Q. Have you ever been known by any other name? 12 A. No. 13 Q. Now, Jack and Diann McGowan are your parents? 14 A. Yes. 15 Q. How many brothers and sisters do you have? 16 A. Seven. 17 Q. Which one are you? Oldest? Youngest? What? 18 A. I'm the oldest. 19 Q. What is your address? 20 A. 230 Westwood Drive, Mankato, Minnesota 56001. 21 Q. What is your phone number? 22 A. 507-344-8194. 23 Q. Do you have a cell phone? 24 A. Yes. 25 Q. What is that number? TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. QUESTIONER ^pg. 5 1 A. I can never remember. Just call the previous 2 number, and if I don't answer, press zero to get me 3 on my cell phone. 4 You didn't ask, but I have a toll-free 5 number and a fax as well. 6 Q. What is your fax number? 7 A. 507-344-2126. And the toll-free number is 8 866-452-7002. If I don’t answer that, zero gets my 9 cell from there too. 10 Q. Did you graduate from high school? 11 A. Yes; I went to Loyola High School in Mankato and 12 graduated in the early '80s. 13 Q. Any college? 14 A. Three years. I went to St. Mary's College in 15 Winona, Minnesota, right after high school. I 16 needed about a half a year's credits to graduate, 17 but I left when I couldn't afford school anymore. 18 Q. Okay; any other education? 19 A. After a few years, I went to what was then known as 20 Rasmussen Business College in Minnetonka, 21 Minnesota -- or it might have had a Plymouth 22 address. It was across Highway 12 from Ridgedale. 23 Q. Did you graduate? 24 A. Yes, with an associate in applied science degree in 25 court reporting. I graduated in the early '90s. TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. QUESTIONER ^pg. 6 1 Apart from years of self-guided studies 2 in grammar, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, and 3 usage, that's all my education. Well, and I've 4 learned a lot about personal computers since 5 getting out of school too. Friends call me Tim's 6 Tech Support -- 7 MR. SHIELD: I think you've answered him. 8 BY MR. QUESTIONER: 9 Q. Well, now, you're a court reporter, aren't you? 10 A. Yeah, since 1993. I organized as McGowan 11 Reporting, LLC, in 2003. 12 Q. Where have you practiced? 13 A. Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities and, of 14 course, now in Mankato since the fall of 2006. 15 Q. What services do you offer? 16 A. I report depositions, arbitrations, and statements 17 under oath -- you know, the usual. 18 I offer a few unique services. I scan 19 any exhibits and put them in a PDF file with the 20 transcript. Every entry in the transcript index is 21 a link to the content in the body of the 22 transcript. Click on a page number in the index to 23 go to that page. Click on an exhibit number to 24 jump to the scanned exhibit. Hold down the Alt key 25 on your keyboard and press the Left arrow key to TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. QUESTIONER ^pg. 7 1 return to your previous location in the document. 2 The PDF file includes bookmarks, also 3 known as outlines. These are links which appear in 4 a pane on the left side of the document, and they 5 take the reader to the index, examination, 6 exhibits, and other important sections of the 7 transcript. It's handy, I think, having the index 8 always available. 9 Because scans of exhibits are pictures, 10 really, and not searchable text, I use OCR software 11 to lay an invisible layer of the text over the 12 scanned exhibit. When you search for something in 13 the PDF file, you'll look through both the 14 transcript and the exhibits. Of course, a 15 bad-looking exhibit can yield poor OCR results: A 16 fax of a fax of a fax usually spells 17 disappointment. 18 Oh, and I also offer transcripts in 19 native Word and WordPerfect format, not the clunky 20 conversions from ASCII that I've seen elsewhere. 21 MR. QUESTIONER: I'm going to ask the 22 reporter to mark this, please. 23 (Exhibit 1 marked.) 24 BY MR. QUESTIONER: 25 Q. What is this? TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. QUESTIONER ^pg. 8 1 A. It's a calendar for 2009. 2 Q. And on the back you have calendars for 2006, 2007, 3 2008, and 2010? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. And is this a document you've created? 6 A. Yeah, it is. It's just a WordPerfect table, you 7 know. Well, five tables, if you want to get 8 technical. 9 Q. And your logo is a shamrock, I see. How very Irish 10 of you. 11 MR. SHIELD: Objection -- 12 THE WITNESS: Sorry; no. It's a clover. 13 The graphic file I adapted called it a shamrock, 14 but it's really a four-leaf clover. 15 MR. QUESTIONER: Oh. Learned something. 16 Well, I guess that's all I had to ask 17 about that, then. 18 (Exhibit 2 marked.) 19 BY MR. QUESTIONER: 20 Q. And what's this? 21 A. It's the St. Patrick's Day card I send out. 22 Q. Is this another document you've created? 23 A. Yep. In WordPerfect. 24 I'm hoping to come up with some new text 25 this year, but the well's run dry for the moment. TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. SHIELD ^pg. 9 1 Q. What's with the leprechaun? 2 A. Besides what's in the fine print on the back? 3 Q. Oh. (Reviewing document.) Guess that answers that 4 question, in a really indirect way. 5 A. There's a more prosaic version of that on my Web 6 site. 7 Q. Got it. What I still don't have, though, is a copy 8 of your resume. 9 A. I left it at home, right by the door, where I'd be 10 sure not to miss it on my way here. Obviously, 11 that's not working out for me too well. 12 Q. Can you get a copy of that to your attorney so he 13 can send it to me? 14 A. Absolutely. 15 (Document request.) 16 MR. QUESTIONER: I guess that's really 17 all I needed to get on the record. 18 MR. SHIELD: One point of clarification, 19 I think, is in order. 20 21 EXAMINATION 22 BY MR. SHIELD: 23 Q. You mentioned you have a Web site. 24 What's the address? 25 A. McGowanReporting.com. TIMOTHY McGOWAN - EXAMINATION BY MR. SHIELD ^pg. 10 1 Q. Do you have an e-mail address? 2 A. Yeah; it's Admin@McGowanReporting.com. 3 (Exhibit 3 marked.) 4 BY MR. SHIELD: 5 Q. Is this a printout of your Web site's home page? 6 A. That's right. As it existed on that date. 7 Q. I've used that link on your Web site to send e-mail 8 to you, and it routes to a different address. 9 A. Yes, and that one works just fine too. I was 10 trying to keep the address from being harvested by 11 spam bots, but I think that cat's long since out of 12 the bag. 13 Q. Oh, I see. 14 MR. SHIELD: That's all I have. 15 MR. QUESTIONER: I'm good. 16 MR. SHIELD: This was short, but I always 17 advise reading and signing, so that's what we'll 18 do. 19 (Time noted: 9:15 a.m.) 20 * * * * 21 22 23 24 25 TIMOTHY McGOWAN - JANUARY 1, 2009 ^pg. 11 1 STATE OF MINNESOTA ) ) ss. CERTIFICATE 2 COUNTY OF BLUE EARTH ) 3 Be it known that I, Timothy J. McGowan, recorded the foregoing deposition of TIMOTHY J. 4 McGOWAN; That I was then and there a notary public 5 in and for the County of Blue Earth and State of Minnesota; 6 That by virtue thereof I was then and there duly authorized to administer an oath; 7 That the witness, before testifying, was by me first duly sworn to testify to the truth, the 8 whole truth, and nothing but the truth relative to said cause; 9 That the testimony of said witness was recorded in stenotypy by me and was reduced to 10 typewriting by me or under my direction, and that the transcript is a true record, to the best of my 11 ability, of the testimony given by the witness; That the right to read and sign the 12 transcript by the said witness was reserved; That the cost of the original was charged 13 to the attorney noticing the deposition and that all parties that ordered copies were charged 14 equally; That the sealed original transcript will 15 be delivered to John A. Questioner, Esquire, upon receipt of signed errata sheet(s) or upon 16 expiration of the 30-day time limit; That I am not related to or employed by 17 or contracting with any of the parties or attorneys in this matter, nor am I interested in the outcome 18 of the action; and That the reading and signing has been 19 executed as evidenced by the following page(s). WITNESS my hand and seal this 10th day of 20 January, 2009. 21 22 _________________________________ Timothy J. McGowan, Notary Public 23 My commission expires January 31, 2010. 24 25 TIMOTHY McGOWAN - JANUARY 1, 2009 ^pg. 12 1 DEPOSITION CORRECTION SHEET 2 TITLE: McGOWAN vs. McGOWAN REPORTING 3 WITNESS: TIMOTHY J. McGOWAN 4 PAGE LINE DESIRED CHANGE 5 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 6 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 7 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 8 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 9 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 10 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 11 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 12 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 13 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 14 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 15 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 16 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 17 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 18 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 19 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 20 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 21 ____ ____ ____________________________________________ 22 23 _________________ ____________________________________ DATE TIMOTHY J. McGOWAN 24 Return to Timothy J. McGowan, McGowan Reporting, LLC, 25 230 Westwood Drive, Mankato, MN 56001-2243