Dismissed Worker Sues Sandpoint Man With Aryan Nations Ties Says He Was Wrongfully Fired

A former city worker who had ties to the Aryan Nations says he was wrongfully fired and has filed a $75,000 tort claim against the city.

Richard Masker was Sandpoint’s water treatment plant supervisor for six years. He was fired Nov. 5, 1996, because he missed four days of work without notifying city officials why he was gone.

Masker said he couldn’t show up for work because he was in the Kootenai County Jail. There was no way to notify the city because he could only call collect from jail and the city doesn’t accept collect calls, Masker said in his claim.

“It was impossible … to have any personal contact with the city of Sandpoint while incarcerated,” Masker wrote in the claim.

He wants the city to pay for lost wages, emotional distress and defamation of character. City officials declined to comment on the tort claim.

Masker, 54, who now lives in Post Falls, was arrested in Sandpoint on Oct. 31, 1996, for failing to appear in court. Masker had refused to pay a $30,000 loan for a Jeep and hid the vehicle so the bank could not repossess it.

In letters to the court and lawyers, Masker espoused anti-government beliefs, calling the banking and court system a fraud. At one court hearing, Masker even refused to admit who he was. He was eventually released from jail after he returned the Jeep to the bank.

Masker used to live at Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake and touts himself as a conspiratologist, or someone who studies secret societies.

The city cited its code of ethics and leave-of-absence policies for firing Masker. The tort claim also notes the city was left in an “operating predicament” because Masker had not reported to work.

Masker argued he has a “nearly flawless” employment record with the city and should have been disciplined, not fired.

“(Masker) was not given even the slightest chance for disciplinary action. … He was just terminated, no questions asked,” the claim says.

Masker was reprimanded in writing by a former Sandpoint mayor for using his city business card to send out his antigovernment information. Before coming to Sandpoint, Masker was fired from a similar water treatment job in Corvallis, Ore. He was terminated after he mailed Hitler birthday cards to instructors at Oregon State University. Masker, who has said he does not believe the Holocaust occurred, sued the city, and the case was eventually settled out of court.

, DataTimes