JEFFERSON CITY — The state has agreed to pay $500,000 to a former governor's office attorney to settle claims he was wrongfully terminated and defamed by Gov. Matt Blunt after questioning the office's e-mail deletion practices.
The settlement was announced Friday by Attorney General Chris Koster.
Former governor's office lawyer Scott Eckersley sued Blunt and other administration officials in January 2008, alleging they retaliated against him after he raised concerns that the office may have violated public records laws in its handling of e-mails.
Blunt has maintained that Eckersley was fired in September 2007 for justifiable reasons, including doing excessive amounts of private legal work from his state office.
The attorney general's office released a statement Friday on behalf of Eckersley, Blunt and the other defendants from Blunt's administration saying "all of the parties strongly believe in the merits of their positions."
"However, for various reasons including the cost of continuing to litigate this matter through trial, (all parties) agree that settling the case for the amount of $500,000. ... In exchange for full and complete release of all claims asserted is in the best interests of the taxpayers of the state of Missouri," the joint statement said.
Koster said the state legal expense fund, from which the settlement will be paid, already has shelled out more than $1.3 million to attorneys defending Blunt and four former staff members named as defendants in Eckersley's lawsuit.
Eckersley's attorneys will be paid with some of the settlement proceeds.
After Eckersley went public with his assertions in October 2007, then-Attorney General Jay Nixon appointed a special investigative team to look into whether the governor's office was complying with record-retention requirements and the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Those investigators issued a report in March asserting that Blunt's administration violated Missouri's public records laws but opted not to refer the matter to prosecutors.
Blunt chose not to run for re-election in 2008. Nixon won that election and took over as governor in January.