AG’s office: State will pay Scott Eckersley $500,000
JEFFERSON CITY — The state will pay a former staffer of Gov. Matt Blunt $500,000 to settle his wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit.
Scott Eckersley sued the governor and several of his staff members last January alleging defamation of character, wrongful termination and violations of the state open records law. The lawsuit has cost the state well over a million dollars as Blunt and his staffers used the state’s legal defense fund to pay attorneys fees.
The attorney general’s office issued the following statement this afternoon:
The lawsuit in this case was filed following the termination of Scott Eckersley’s employment by the Office of the Governor, State of Missouri. Based on the claims and defenses asserted by both plaintiff and defendants, 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 of the undersigned parties to the Release agree that settling the case for the amount of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00) on behalf of the defendants and the State Legal Expense Fund, in exchange for full and complete release of all claims asserted, is in the best interests of the taxpayers of the State of Missouri.
This is ridiculous. He got fired because he was a bad employee. This is cheaper than the State going to court though. He should be put in jail for extorting money this way. He’s a lousy employee, but apparently knows enough to scam Missourians out of money.
Okay, lets run down what you can do if you are a worthless employee, who also happens to be a dishonest money whore:
1. Make buddies with the politico opponents of those nasty guys who fired you for being terrible at your job.
2. Make up a good story to smear your old boss, and make you look like a hero (e.g. “I was a titan of integrity and had a problem with a sunshine law violation, and called them on it, and they FIRED me for it!!!)
3. Activate your old boss’ political opponents, who will believe ANYTHING negative about them.
4. Sue. Because we all know, suing means you are telling the truth and you really mean business.
Honestly - the most embarassing thing about this is how much the leftists have bought into this troll’s garbage - and all because it was a Republican. If this happened to Nixon, they’d be screaming that it was a bad employee trying to extort money.
I’d have paid them off to just go away too.
Former Gov. Blunt is out there making money, hand over fist!! Why isn’t he paying this out of pocket or paying some. Why saddle the State, already struggling, with this half million price tag. And his Daddy who should be helping to pay this wants to serve us as Senator. You can’t make this stuff up!!!
Absurd millions of workers are laidoff or fired every year why should a state employees of a state that allows such terminations a republican at that get this large or any reward. It is unfair to on one hand layoff millions of people but give a republican state employees the employers representative a large payoff this matter needs further attention by the federal government.
Wouldn’t have cost the state a dime if you idiots hadn’t elected Blunt in the first place.
Blame yourselves, MO GOP.
And the real winners are the lawyers (as usual).
And that, boys and girls, is why schools teach us how to use punctuation.
He didn’t do a bad job, he was fired to cover up Blunt’s deletion of emails, which is required by the Sunshine Law. Do you people even read the paper? Oh, I guess you do, you just can’t remember (expletive deleted)!
it looks like if…
baby blunt and ed martin will keep their mouths shut…
let the case quietly come to a close…
allow the state to pay for their indiscretions…
and walk away not paying a dime.
all the while…
letting the Missour-ee tax payer…
pay for their misdeeds and recklessness.
it seems that the term…
‘making out like a bandit’…
is appropriate here.
Hey Normandy.
Lets pretend your Matt Blunt for a minute. You delete the emails and all that Jazz. This guy knows about it and wants to do the whole sunshine law thing.
What’s the BEST WAY to “cover it up”?
I can tell you what the WORST WAY is - to fire the guy.
Can somebody explain to me exactly why anyone thinks that firing him is a sign of attempting to cover it up? Firing him can be punishment, but it can’t muzzle him, or help keep the cover on an issue like this. If anything, it will blow UP coverage on an issue, because the pissed off employee will then cry to the press.
Which suggests to me that he was fired because - you guessed it - he sucked at his job, not to cover it up. If Blunt wanted to cover it up, he’d have paid the guy off, or one of the other hundreds of things that can be done to keep somebody quiet. Firing him would just turn him into a megaphone, and would be the worst possible idea for a politician who is trying to keep something under wraps.
So, in short - this guy is a useless political hack.