"Ed has a way of glossing things over when things get shitty," Thompson continues. "He kept promising me that at the end of all the B.S. there would be a golden opportunity for me in the art world."
Dickson says he can see how Dwight could have wooed Thompson back. "Ed is the devil in plainclothes," he says, "and he can be charming as hell."
But Dwight's attorney, Barbara Furutani, says her client never asked Thompson to return. "It was always little Matty who was begging to come back to work for Ed," she says, "not the other way around."
Why would Dwight rehire someone he'd accused of stealing? Dwight says it's his nature to be forgiving. "Matt Thompson is one of the best welders I've ever seen in my life," he says. "He's done a lot of crazy, off-the-wall things, but I've got five kids, and I didn't abandon them when they did crazy things. I decided to help this guy, but that's not a character flaw. I did it for the same reason that I buy art from every weak artist in this town when they can't make their rent."
(Gallery owner Bonner agrees that Dwight does his share to support the local art market. "Ed will trade with other artists even though their stuff isn't worth as much," he says.)
But Dwight points out that his relationship with Thompson was not one between equals. "Matt is not an artist, he's a technician. I am a very gifted man and very confident in what I do every day," he says. "He'd like to be like me in the worst way, but he doesn't understand me. He's a good-looking, tall white guy. The world is built for him. I'm a short black guy, and he doesn't understand what I go through. And if you don't understand something, you try to dismantle it."
Whatever Dwight's reasons for hiring Thompson a third time--and Thompson's for returning--it didn't take long before the two were back at each other's throats.
On April 20, 1996, Thompson was working on the B.B. King monument when King's guitar, "Lucille," fell. He caught the heavy bronze replica, he says, throwing his back out in the process. But Thompson didn't tell Dwight about the injury right away. "Hell, I just moved back from Iowa," he explains. "I didn't want to get fired again."
Besides, Thompson claims, Dwight had already instructed him to tell everyone around the shop to be "especially careful" because he'd forgotten to pay his workers' comp insurance. (Dwight had let his insurance lapse before, in 1991, shortly before another worker was hurt on the job. Dwight fired that worker, who took him to court, where the worker won a settlement that included damages and back pay.)
But Thompson's pain didn't go away, and he says he finally reported it to Dwight on June 4. The artist fired him the next day, he says, writing a check for $1,000 and telling him, "I don't have time to fuck with you on this."
Two weeks later, though, Dwight agreed to send Thompson to his personal physician for an evaluation. When the doctor's report came back July 30 indicating that Thompson did indeed have a herniated disk, Dwight terminated the relationship permanently, Thompson says.
Thompson filed a workers' comp claim. In a response sent last summer to state employment officials, Dwight said that Thompson didn't report his injury until almost four months after it was suffered--a clear case of Thompson trying to take advantage of Dwight falling behind in his workers' compensation insurance.
According to O'Toole, Thompson's attorney, his client is eligible for back pay (one year's worth at $600 a week) and medical costs, including $20,000 for an operation. Because Dwight's insurance had lapsed, Thompson could also be eligible for a higher percentage of long-term workers' comp, O'Toole says.
At the May 21 hearing, according to O'Toole, Dwight used the "artist defense" for forgetting to renew his insurance.
Furutani, Dwight's attorney, says her client won't pay up without a fight. "If Ed believed that Matt Thompson was legitimately hurt, he would definitely pay for his injuries," Furutani says. "I'm not saying Ed is perfect, but I know that he's gone out of his way to help people. All Ed wants to be is a sculptor, and Matt Thompson is making that hard for him to do."
Having now been unemployed for several months, Matt Thompson is finding it hard to make ends meet. He's trying to sell his truck, because he can't make payments on it. He's enrolled in vocational rehabilitation in hopes of finding a new line of work; his doctor says his injury means welding is out of the question.
"The thing that bothers me the most about all this is that I sacrificed my welding career for this man," Thompson says. "And instead of accepting his responsibility, Ed has spent more on lawyers than if he had just paid for my injury.
"I busted my balls working for Ed, and I ended up busting my back as well.
