YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

 

Investigating Officer(s): Det. S. Murphy, Det. T. Armstrong

Case No: 001524-03D-2000

Case Description: Trudi Rose Death Investigation

Kelly Clinton was the victim's business partner. In response to the detectives' request for information about the Cupid's Couples interns and the identities of the Cupid's Couples clients whose files were allegedly stolen by Corinna Morgan, Ms. Clinton provided the following statement through Cupid's Couples' attorney, Bruce Rushing.

Cupid's Couples has employed interns for many years. Trudi and I worked with the Career Center at the University of Mississippi to arrange for the internships each semester. In most cases, an intern works with us for one semester. In the past, a few interns have chosen to extend their internships for a full academic year.

Interns' responsibilities include numerous clerical and administrative duties such as data entry, photocopying, filing, making and confirming restaurant reservations for client dates, preparing bulk mailings for advertising campaigns, running errands when necessary, and other similar tasks. Before beginning an internship, each intern is required to sign a confidentiality agreement, which prohibits them from revealing any information about any Cupid's Couples client. As the confidentiality agreement expressly states, if an intern violates the agreement, he or she would be subject to immediate dismissal and could be subject to lawsuits filed by Cupid's Couples and/or the client(s) involved. However, in the nearly 11 years Cupid's Couples has been in operation, no intern has ever violated the confidentiality agreement.

Since January 2000, Cupid's Couples has employed four interns, all students at the University of Mississippi. Marylee Clark, a senior majoring in Marketing, works Tuesday and Thursday mornings at our office. Leanne Hammond, a junior majoring in Art History, works with us Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Bryan Thomas, a junior majoring in Human Resource Management, works Wednesday and Friday mornings. Tamee Reynolds, a senior majoring in Graphic Design, works Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

All four interns have been excellent employees. We have never had any difficulties with any of them, professionally or personally.

Regarding the incident on February 14, 2000 when former Cupid's Couples employee Corinna Morgan was terminated for suspicion of client file theft, I noted which client files were involved in a memo to Ms. Morgan's personnel file for future reference.

The client files Ms. Morgan was suspected of stealing were: Oscar Bulloch, Neal Evans, Preston Howard, Jerry McCullough, Monte Parris, Rick Puckett, Michael Robbins, Davis Starke, Gary Thompson, and Keith Zalenski. These clients were not officially notified of the incident as we did not have any proof that the files had ever left the Cupid's Couples office. We did not have evidence that any of the clients' confidentiality had been breached, only the belief that such an attempt had been made.

//Kelly M. Clinton

WITNESS:

//Bruce Rushing, Esq.