COEUR d’ALENE — With threat of termination, Kootenai County forced employees to cooperate with an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against a coworker and made them agree not to discuss it with anyone — including their spouses and attorneys.

At least a half-dozen employees in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office signed the county’s “Confidentiality and No Retaliation Agreement” forbidding them to discuss the investigation with anyone other than a third-party investigator hired by the county.

Kenneth D. Stone, a deputy prosecutor and subject of the investigation, signed the agreement in October 2010. Months later, in February 2011, Stone signed another agreement with language added by Prosecutor Barry McHugh allowing Stone to discuss the investigation with his wife and attorney.

“I can’t believe people had to sign those,” said Kathlene Kolts, an attorney representing Stone and his wife, Saviraj Grewal. She said because of the agreement he signed, Stone didn’t tell his wife about the investigation from October 2010 to February 2011.

She said it “caused a set of other problems between them as a married couple.”

Stone received $315,000 from the county’s insurer in December 2013 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against the county, alleging wrongful termination and age discrimination. The county insurer also gave the county money to hire Stone back and cover his wages until he’s eligible for retirement.

However, Stone has not worked a day since the settlement was reached.

The Press is awaiting the county’s response on a records request seeking copies of the Confidentiality and No Retaliation Agreements signed by county employees. Stone’s attorney on Wednesday provided two agreements signed by Stone and said she had copies of others signed by coworkers who were interviewed by Kandy Weaver, a third-party investigator hired by the county.

Commissioners Dan Green and Todd Tondee on Wednesday declined to comment on the agreements. McHugh returned a message from The Press and said he was working on getting information the newspaper had asked for, but needed another day.

Kolts also provided The Press with a 21-page September 2013 report from a Seattle employment attorney Stone hired to be an expert witness in his federal civil rights suit.

Attorney Claire Cordon’s report alleges Weaver “omitted witness testimony that exonerated Stone” and then intentionally destroyed her notes from interviews with county employees.

Kolts said Stone’s wrongful firing and age discrimination suit against the county was settled before Cordon’s report and court deposition could be admitted as evidence in the case.

Weaver’s “confidential” report, however, was filed with the court and made part of the public record by the attorneys representing Stone in the civil suit. Stone has since hired Kolts as his attorney.

“What happened was one side of the story was revealed,” Kolts said.

Kolts said Cordon’s report clears Stone of the sexual harassment allegations which she said have been very hurtful.

“He is not a pervert,” Kolts said. “He is not anything close. He is a very, very nice man.”

The report by Cordon, who used to be an acting deputy director for the U.S. Equal Employment Commission’s Seattle office, is critical of the county’s handling of Stone’s firing and the hiring of Weaver to investigate the allegations leveled by his coworkers.

“No reasonable employer would conduct an investigation of the scope undertaken by Kootenai County based on the facts and circumstances of this case,” Cordon wrote. Though Weaver promised those she interviewed that what they told her would be protected by attorney-client privilege, Cordon said Weaver is not an attorney.

“Weaver is incorrect in her belief that neutral fact-finding investigative reports are not subject to disclosure,” Cordon wrote, “particularly when the report was prepared at the behest of a public agency.”

Attempts by Weaver to keep her report secret — even from Stone’s attorneys — “underscores her failure to understand her role as a neutral fact finder,” Cordon wrote.

Weaver did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Weaver’s report details several instances of alleged sexual harassment by Stone dating back to 2007, including the January 2011 allegation by Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson that led to Stone’s firing. Reierson complained of “unwanted shoulder touching,” according to court records.

McHugh subsequently asked Stone to submit to a polygraph examination and a psychosexual evaluation, Cordon said, and “to sign an onerous confidentiality agreement that precluded consultation with his lawyer or his wife.”

Cordon described McHugh’s approach as “heavy-handed” and said it “stands in stark contrast with how Kootenai County responded to a real complaint of sexual harassment in 2007.”

She cited complaints two female coworkers leveled against then-Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rick Baughman and news reports that Baughman had exchanged emails with other employees with attachments “depicting bestiality, oral sex and a toddler with his genitals exposed.”

“Kootenai County did not ask Baughman to undergo a polygraph or psychosexual evaluation, but it did when Reierson complained Stone briefly touched his shoulder,” Cordon wrote. “These facts strongly suggest McHugh was intent on terminating Stone from the outset and that he had motives unrelated to the enforcement of the laws against unlawful harassment, including replacing Stone with a younger worker, which is what, in fact, occurred.”

Emails included with court records show that when Stone attempted to appeal his firing, McHugh told him his accusers and witnesses could not be forced to testify at Stone’s appeal hearing. McHugh also said Stone could not have an attorney with him at the hearing.

Cordon said the county’s firing of Stone was “in contradiction to its own written policies, draconian and unwarranted. No reasonable employer would terminate an employee based on the facts of this case, particularly one so close to vesting in retirement.”

She said an office of attorneys and elected officials should have known better.

News of Stone’s settlement was first released in December in the form of a joint press release issued by Stone and the county. The news release said Stone would be hired back at his full salary and benefits until he was vested in retirement.

Neither the county nor Stone released the amount of the settlement, citing a “confidentiality agreement.”

Kolts said the confidentiality agreement to keep the details of Stone’s payment secret was proposed by the county.

“The confidentiality agreement was not something my client wanted,” Kolts said. “It would have been to their benefit to have the amount disclosed at the outset.”

Stone and his wife have paid $50,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and another $125,000 in attorney’s fees, Kolts said.

“They didn’t just walk away with a big chunk of money,” she said.

Stone and his wife asked for the press release, she said, because they were concerned that if there was a settlement and nothing was shared with the public it would imply Stone was “truly guilty of what they had charged him with.”

Much of the information covered by the confidentiality agreement — including the amount — has been released as a result of records requests and the responses county officials and attorneys have given The Press in response to questions about the settlement, Kolts said.

She also said the county insists that the confidentiality agreement sealing terms of the settlement are still in effect.

Kolts said she met with Todd Tondee and asked that the county apologize to Stone and his wife for not notifying them the information was being made public.

“I have been turned down flat,” she said.

•••

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct an inaccuracy regarding the second agreement signed by Kenneth Stone.