VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A Clark County Superior Court judge has fined the county $40,000 after ruling that it withheld documents in a lawsuit being pursued by former Republican state senator and county official Don Benton. The Columbian reports Judge Gregory Gonzales also ruled on March 11 that the county must provide him with a private screening of all of the documents by March 17. The county then produced roughly 1,700 pages of documents. Once the director of the now-defunct county Department of Environmental Services, Benton filed the lawsuit, along with two other former employees, in 2016. It alleged, in part, that Benton experienced hostility and harassment after resisting what he described as improper actions by then-manager Mark McCauley.
County fined $40K for withholding documents in Benton suit
