In a blow to U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s re-election campaign, a lawsuit filed against U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth by two employees of a veterans home was settled for just $26,000 on Friday.
The Kirk camp had been emphasizing the potential that Duckworth may have to testify in the Downstate Union County case, with a trial set for Aug. 15. The Republican senator’s campaign even sent out “save the date” postcards with the message, “Tammy Duckworth VS. IDVA Whistleblowers.”
But on Thursday, the trial judge set a pretrial settlement conference.
According to the Illinois Attorney General’s office, which represented Duckworth in the case, the case was settled Friday for $26,000 to cover attorney fees and all costs.
“During the course of today’s discussions, it became clear that we could resolve this matter on behalf of the State and both Trish Simms and Tammy Duckworth for nuisance value – saving the State the costs of lawyers preparing for and trying the case,” attorney general’s office spokeswoman Maura Possley said in a statement. “As a result, the Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of the State, has reached an agreement to settle the case for $26,000, which will cover attorney’s fees and all costs. The settlement is based on the agreement that there is no finding of a violation of the law.”
Kirk’s campaign aimed to throw a spotlight on the suit against Duckworth, which had been percolating for years, relating to the Democrat’s tenure as the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. She was appointed to the job by then Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now serving a 14-year federal prison sentence following convictions on corruption charges.
Kirk and his allies have been trying to impugn Duckworth through her association with Blagojevich.
In the lawsuit, two employees of the Anna Veterans Home claim they were retaliated against by Duckworth in 2007 for complaining about their boss Patricia Simms, the home’s acting administrator.
According to lawsuit documents, after the two employees filed complaints about their supervisor, Duckworth, then director of the veterans department, visited the Anna facility and terminated one of them, Christine Butler, an executive secretary at the home, for being “insubordinate” to Simms and herself.
Simms was also reprimanded by Duckworth, according to Butler’s deposition.
Butler told Duckworth’s attorneys that she believes she was terminated in retaliation for her filing reports about suspicious activities at Anna.
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