Former Sam Adams spokesman Wade Nkrumah has followed through on his threat to sue the mayor for telling a TV reporter he had quit over "stress" in late January—the O and WW are reporting this afternoon.

Nkrumah quit because of Adams' "lying as a public official," and not stress, according to his tort claim. He is now seeking $500,000 in damages, including $18,750 for unpaid time he says he worked for Adams before he became mayor.

"It is city policy not to comment on pending litigation," says Roy Kaufmann, Nkrumah's replacement—referring the Mercury to city attorney Linda Meng, who repeated the words of Kaufmann's no-comment, exactly.

Kaufmann had no comment when asked whether the mayor would be paying any costs associated with the claim, personally—an issue raised by this reporter in May, in light of Adams' promises to step down if the Breedlove scandal impacted city business.

Nevertheless it appears the city attorney's time and resources will be devoted to fighting the claim.

"We haven't had any exchange of information at all with them," says Michael Hanlon, Nkrumah's attorney. "I don't know what the extent of their investigation has been. I think certainly, if they were amenable to settling, then we would have heard from them by now."

Download a copy of the suit here.