The Texas Lottery Commission has paid nearly $100,000 to settle a 2-year-old federal lawsuit brought by a former employee who accused the agency of firing him for going public with his concerns that legislative leaders were being misled about a vital computer system that he said was inoperable.

According to figures released Wednesday under the Texas Open Records Act, Shelton Charles, a former Lottery Commission systems analyst, was paid $58,688, and his lawyers received nearly $40,000 from the state in the settlement, which was sealed by mutual consent.

The dollar figures were made public under the long-standing policy that taxpayer money cannot be spent in secrecy.

The Star-Telegram’s request that the entire agreement be made public remains pending.

Charles had been working for the lottery for 10 years in November 2005 when he e-mailed several state lawmakers warning them that the commission’s backup computer system, intended to allow the agency to continue functioning in a disaster, had never worked properly and that the state would be out millions of dollars if the mainframe crashed.

In court filings, Charles said that lottery employees had been "bullied into silence" by top agency officials who didn’t want word to get out.

Charles, who is African-American, also said commission officials discriminated against minority employees.

The Lottery Commission, in its court filings, denied Charles’ assertions and said its computer systems are sound.

Charles was fired for insubordination, not for taking his concerns to legislative leaders, commission officials say.

The agency also aggressively sought to have then-acting Director Gary Grief removed as a defendant but was rebuked by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judges chastised the Lottery Commission and the Texas attorney general’s office, which represents state agencies in court actions, for filing "a clearly unwarranted appeal" that they said was designed to run up Charles’ legal bills to discourage him from continuing the lawsuit.

"Taking such an appeal now is unconscionable," the 5th Circuit Court wrote in its November 2007 opinion.

Lottery Commission spokesman Bobby Heith declined to comment Wednesday on the particulars of the lawsuit or on the settlement, citing the confidentiality clause.

"The only thing I’d say at this point is that the matter has been settled to all the parties’ satisfaction," Heith said.

In his original court pleading, Charles sought to be reinstated in his job and be paid back wages plus more money as compensation for suffering he said he incurred as a result of his firing.

His lawyer, Robert Schmidt of Austin, said Charles could not comment because any violation of the confidentiality agreement could cause him to forfeit his settlement package.

"It would not be in his interest to jeopardize the settlement in any way," Schmidt said.