A former public affairs director said Gov. Mike Easley's office ordered e-mail sent to him destroyed.
Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, was fired Tuesday amid the fallout from an N&O investigation of the state's mental health system, Dan Kane reports.
"The governor's office, press office, to bypass the public records laws, they ask the second you e-mail them anything, to kill it, then kill it again out of your trash so it doesn't exist," she said. "That's what they tell all the public affairs people, that they don't want to create any public records."
Seth Effron, a spokesman for Easley, denied the allegation and said that Crane was "dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate" and hindered reporters from getting information from the department.
If Crane's contention is true, it would be a violation of the state's public records law, said Amanda Martin, a press attorney for the N.C. Press Association.
Several public information officers in state agencies said they had not been told to delete e-mail, but Ernie Seneca, chief spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said he deletes all of his e-mails at the end of the day.
N&O reporters have made numerous requests for e-mail to the governor's office only to be told no such records exist.
Correction: An earlier version of this post included an incorrect word.
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Re: Aide: Easley office wanted e-mail trashed
It seems that Mr. Easley keeps making more mistakes... Now, we are going from the mental health reform failure, the unfairly firing a committed public officer to the violation of the public records law. Is there an end to this snow ball effect? What else have this administration done wrong??? Pretty scary... it seems that the more the N&O investigates, the more we found out is wrong...
I hope Ms. Crane fights for her reputation and unfair dismissal.