Former Lassen County Administrative Officer Tom Stone will have his day in court next month, when his $1 million wrongful termination lawsuit will get its first hearing in Lassen Superior Court.
Judge Tony Mallory is scheduled April 18 to hear a challenge filed by the Board of Supervisors to the complaint Stone filed in January.
Stone was fired in July 2011, seven months after starting the $120,000-a-year job, in a dispute over the interpretation of his contract, including medical and educational benefits.
He named as defendants the three supervisors who voted to fire him: Jim Chapman, Jack Hanson and Bob Pyle, all still serving as supervisors.
He first filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in federal court. When U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England dismissed Stone's federal case, ruling that it was filed in an improper venue, he refiled it in Lassen County.
Stone alleges that the supervisors violated the government and labor codes as well as his First Amendment rights. He also claims they slandered his professional reputation, a violation of the California Constitution.
He is seeking more than $500,000 for damages due to the "wrongful deprivation of his individual rights" and another $500,000 for general damages. He has requested a jury trial.
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