Former Waste Management employee testifies in civil lawsuit
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Robert Baxter testified Tuesday in the first day of a trial in which he is suing Waste Management Inc. for wrongful termination and breach of contract.
A mistrial in the case was declared Aug. 1 by Washington County Circuit Judge Michael Mashburn, reportedly due to health problems involving Lamar Pettus, Fayetteville attorney for Baxter, so it is being retried this week.
Baxter, the former governmental relations coordinator, was fired from Waste Management, which owns the Tontitown landfill, in January 2002. He contends in the suit that he was fired because he threatened to go to state officials over a cavein and hole in the protective liner of the landfill.
He has asked for back pay and benefits, as well as damages he says Waste Management caused by removing clay for landfill cover from some of the 1,850 acres on Hobbs Mountain near Durham he purchased from the company in 2000.
He testified Tuesday about the conversation he had with a human resources official when he was terminated. "He said I was 60 years old,"Baxter said. "Old enough to retire."
When Pettus on Tuesday asked Baxter why he believes he was fired, Baxter said," I think because I was going to turn them into the state."
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