(Jefferson City)  --  Missouri's pension fund board trying to file a lawsuit to regain some of nearly $2 billion in stock market losses is stirring up controversy.

   That is because state Senator Jason Crowell, a Cape Girardeau Republican on the pension board, was hired to do work for one of the firms that could possibly get a contract to do the work.

   Labaton Sucharow LLP of New York, one of six firms vying for the job, hired Crowell as "liaison counsel" in an upcoming securities-fraud case in St. Louis.

   Crowell said Wednesday that Missouri Bar regulations forbid him from naming his clients but he would not vote on anything that could hypothetically benefit anyone with whom he has a relationship.



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