Judge rules former Douglas County commissioner won’t get legal fees reimbursed in dispute with colleagues
A judge ruled Wednesday that former Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas was not due reimbursement of $5,715 in legal fees she spent defending herself against county-launched investigations that date back three years.
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A judge ruled Wednesday that former Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas was not due reimbursement of $5,715 in legal fees she spent defending herself against county-launched investigations that date back three years.
Thomas’ legal action, filed in 2023, came in the midst of years of bad blood between Thomas and her former colleagues, Commissioners George Teal and Abe Laydon. They twice censured her and stripped her of her position as board chair.
Thomas resigned in December, just weeks before her term would have expired. She wrote on social media upon stepping down that she’d put up with “4 years of hell” while on the board, including “harassment, suppression, censorship, marginalization and outright cancellation.”
Teal and Laydon — who are still in office — took another stab at Thomas on Wednesday, shortly after Douglas County District Judge Robert Lung handed down his ruling.
“Today marks a decisive victory for the people of Douglas County against censured and disgraced former commissioner Lora Thomas, whose baseless lawsuit cost taxpayers over $100,000 in legal fees,” they wrote in a statement.
The ruling came a day after Thomas joined a new lawsuit against Teal and Laydon — and her successor on the Board of County Commissioners, Kevin Van Winkle — alleging they had violated Colorado’s open meetings laws in launching an effort to establish home-rule authority for the county.
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