Kansas City, Mo. ? Eight former employees of the Johnson County, Kan., district attorney’s office who were fired by Phill Kline last year after he took office have dismissed their lawsuit against him.

Joe Colantuono, the attorney for the fired Kansas workers, said the employees agreed to drop their federal case on Monday in exchange for Kline acknowledging that their firings were not the result of anything they did wrong.

In letters to each of the workers, Kline wrote: “I have no criticism of your professional ethics. Further, since you did not serve under me in my position as District Attorney, I do not have personal knowledge of your skills and performance, and I believe that you are eligible for rehire at the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office as allowed by law.”

Colantuono said the workers – seven former assistant district attorneys and one former chief investigator – were seeking to clear their names.

“All eight have found jobs they like,” Colantuono said. “This case was not about money, only their good names.”

The workers’ lawsuit was filed in January 2007, shortly after Kline took office and removed them from their jobs. They claimed that Kline, who replaced Paul Morrison, had no right to fire them or refuse to participate in a county grievance hearing over their removal.

They asked to be reinstated initially, given back pay and awarded punitive damages.

The case was first filed in district court and then moved to federal court.

Kline said Monday that his “transition team” recommended that he terminate the eight employees for “various job performance reasons.” He said he wanted to retain workers that he felt were the best fit for the office.

“We’re happy with this,” Kline said of the lawsuit’s dismissal. “This demonstrates that there was no basis in law for them to sue.”

Brian Burgess, spokesman for Kline, said the district attorney’s office has agreed not to file its own lawsuit since the workers dismissed theirs.

“We could have brought legal action that it was a frivolous lawsuit and then sought damages,” Burgess said.

Colantuono maintains the workers had valid arguments, which he said were supported by county review panel findings that reversed the firings.

“The county reversed Kline’s dismissal decision in separate hearings for all eight,” he said. “Kline refused to hire them back. The letters that Kline sent to each of the eight in the settlement confirmed the county was right. The eight should not have been fired and should have been hired back.”