JEFFERSON CITY - Court records revealed today that Jay Nixon agreed to use $26,000 taxpayer dollars to make a politically damaging lawsuit go away. The $26,000 is being charged to Missouri taxpayers in an attempt by Nixon to avoid public scrutiny for his scurrilous actions. The Missouri Republican Party today called on Nixon to come clean about his actions and publicly apologize for his discrimination against a state employee with disabilities and for the money he has cost Missouri taxpayers.

“Jay Nixon has used taxpayer dollars to defend himself in court for the last three years for discriminating against an attorney for being a quadriplegic, and even with unlimited state taxpayer resources at his disposal, he still couldn’t prevail and decided to pay $26,000 in hush money to the victim of his discrimination,” said Tina Hervey, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “This settlement says a great deal about his competence as an attorney and hisjudgment. With judgement like this Missourians should be very concerned about how he will behave if he is elected governor. - Nixon should publicly apologize to Ms. Grothoff for his despicable behavior. And he should apologize to the taxpayers of Missouri for squandering their hard-earned tax dollars.”

For the last three years, court records show that taxpayer-financed Nixon attorneys James McAdams, Carolyn Vasterling and Karen Mitchell have been defending their boss with McAdams pulling down a $96,622 state salary and Vasterling and Mitchell taking in $92,000 and $113,044 respectively. The case is clearly being paid for by taxpayers since Nixon’s campaign reports for legal fees show no expenditures for the Grothoff case even though he is also being sued as a private individual.

Of course, this is the same Jay Nixon who once claimed: “State government should be a leader, not a shirker, on issues of discrimination and should not be allowed to treat its employees as second-class citizens.”