County taxpayers in Idaho to cover about $2.7M from lawsuit

An Idaho county’s taxpayers will need to cough up about $2.7 million to cover a lawsuit its officials lost against a former employee who had been fired.

The Idaho Statesman reports Ada County’s last-ditch effort Wednesday to not pay $664,527 of the former employee’s legal fees had been denied.

The former employee, Rich Wright, had been fired in January 2013 the day after newly elected commissioners Dave Case and Jim Tibbs were sworn in.

Wright had filed a lawsuit the next month claiming he had been fired in part for ordering an investigation into allegations that a manager with the commissioner’s office had been harassing employees.

He had said commissioners retaliated because the employee, who resigned, was a friend of former commissioner Vern Bisterfeldt’s and took part in Case’s and Tibbs’ campaigns.

Case and Tibbs deny Wright’s claims.