BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana spent nearly $35,000 on private attorneys to respond to the sexual harassment lawsuit against former Secretary of State Tom Schedler, boosting the state's costs in the litigation to $184,000.
The Division of Administration released the attorney spending figure Monday to news outlets, after the final invoices were tallied. In addition to lawyers' fees, the state spent $149,075 to settle the case without going to trial.
Schedler, a Republican in office since 2010, resigned as Louisiana's chief elections officer in May amid the continuing fallout after one of his female employees filed the lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing her for years.
He is Louisiana's highest-ranking official to be felled by accusations since the #MeToo movement began. As part of the settlement, Schedler also personally paid $18,425 to his ex-employee.
