Out of work and out of power, about the only consolation left for former Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman as she sat in court Thursday was that, well, she had the time.

That and this is America and she's presumed innocent.

Otherwise, it couldn't have been all that comfortable listening to David Marshall, her former top aide, recount the "less than 10-minute" meeting that got Workman out of the county's highest office and into Judge Judith Atherton's courtroom this week, surrounded by four defense attorneys who are trying their utmost to keep her out of jail.

That brief meeting took place in the mayor's office in June 2003 when she summoned Marshall, then the county's chief administrative officer, from his adjoining office at county headquarters and introduced him to a woman Workman said she wanted to hire as a county temp.

It was Marshall's testimony yesterday that what the former mayor neglected to tell him was that the woman would be working as an accountant at the non-county South Valley Boys and Girls Club, where she would be supervised by Workman's daughter, Aisza.

Asked by prosecutor Mike Martinez if he would have facilitated the county's hiring of the woman if he'd known those details, Marshall answered, "I would have never participated in that process."

"Why not?" Martinez asked.

"Because it's illegal," Marshall answered.

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Prosecutors must lie awake nights dreaming of witnesses the likes of David Marshall.

He came to court Thursday obviously agitated — clearly, a man scorned — but without airs or apparent arrogance.

Central casting couldn't have dressed him better — a career bureaucrat in sensible shoes and a slightly rumpled sweater vest (with logo) over white shirt and tie.

Then there was his testimony — so detailed that you just know this is a man who has spent the past 25 years dotting the i's and crossing the t's. A man who not only goes by the book, but in this case, went by the book to the point that it toppled the Workman administration and his fat-cat job along with it.

When Marshall said, "If she (Workman) had told me what she wanted to do (up front), I would have helped her every way I could to do it lawfully," it was so quiet you could have heard a legal pad drop in the jury box.

When Martinez finished his questioning, no one would have been surprised if he'd gone up and hugged Marshall.

Defense attorney Jack Morgan, faced with the unenviable task of cross-examination, had nothing to work with (imagine the Jazz offense without Kirilenko) and should have sat down but instead he spent two hours questioning Marshall, which was akin to trying to get one up on a tax auditor or a highway patrolman who just pulled you over, take your pick.

By the time Marshall's testifying had concluded, the question confronting the eight-person jury was crystallized more than ever: Did Workman's circumvention of the county's hiring system amount to criminal behavior, or simple neglect?

Was she The Godmother or just a good mother and an unorganized, neglectful mayor who didn't dot her i's or cross her t's?

Unlike the man who used to run her ship.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.