The Daily Interlake

Wade Dahood said the Montana Human Rights Network-sponsored billboard near the radio station on U.S. 93 should be removed, and asked district Judge Katherine Curtis to issue an order.

"There should be a direction from the court to the Human Rights Network to take that billboard down," Dahood said. "It affects the jury pool."

Stokes is jousting with the state Transportation Department over how much he should be paid for a sliver of land in front of the station needed to widen U.S. 93. The state wants to pay only for the right-of-way it took; Stokes, though, says he will need to relocate his station, and wants the state to pay for it.

He and Dahood reached an agreement with the state some time ago that stipulated a $1.1 million claim, of which $750,000 would be available should the station need to move while the case was being contested. If Stokes loses, he would have to repay the money.

He has since filed another claim asking for $4.7 million to cover relocation costs. The $750,000 has been withdrawn from the bank account by Dahood, but no one seems to know what happened to it.

That's the reason for the billboard, said Ken Toole, program director for the Human Rights Network, which is based in Helena.

"He's elevated complaining about the government and how money is spent to an art form. You name it, he's gone after it," Toole said of Stokes, who hosts a conservative talk show. "When it comes to his own financial interests, he's the first pig at the trough.

"We think he needs to be called on it."

Court documents indicate Stokes paid for the station with a $665,000 loan in April 2000. No improvements have been made that would justify compensation levels several times the station's original cost, Toole said.

Judge Curtis cut short Dahood's diatribe on the billboard, noting that the court's time was limited and that he hadn't filed the legal paperwork needed to consider the issue.