ST. LOUIS — Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler has agreed to pay about $108,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by four employees of his predecessor who he dismissed shortly after taking office early last year.
The four plaintiffs, who were holdover workers from the tenure of former Recorder Sharon Carpenter, had alleged in the federal suit that they were fired illegally and for political reasons.
Butler, in settlement agreements with three of the plaintiffs, denies that any of his actions violated their rights or were “otherwise improper or unlawful.†Copies of the signed agreements, which were reached earlier this month, were released Wednesday by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Chelsea Merta.
Butler said the fourth agreement is still being finalized but that no wrongdoing was acknowledged. That one is with Georgie Simmons, who was Carpenter’s chief deputy. Merta said Simmons is to be paid $51,698.
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The other agreements call for Johnetta Sherrod, the office’s former HR manager, to be paid $44,584; and former employees Robert Dillard and Julie Ellison to be paid $7,500 and $3,750, respectively.
Butler, then a state representative, defeated Carpenter in the August 2018 Democratic primary and was elected in November of that year.
Butler also has been chairman of the city Democratic committee, a post he gave up earlier this year, and recently was elected to chair the Democratic State Committee.
Simmons, Sherrod and Dillard filed the suit in January 2019 and Ellison was added later as a plaintiff.
Butler said he decided to settle to limit the potential liability for the city. He said the settlement followed two years of intense negotiations. The funds used for the settlement, he said, will be absorbed in his office’s existing budget.
