The state Highway Patrol said today that it has turned over to federal authorities a computer that once contained records regarding then Gov. Mike Easley's air travels that are now missing.
The computer had been assigned to Diane Bumgardner, a patrol secretary who works for the governor's security detail, Dan Kane reports.
On Friday, the patrol released an internal report of the missing records in which Bumgardner said the captain who oversaw the detail, Alan Melvin, had told her to download three years of flight records to a computer disk, give it to him and then delete the files from her computer.
More after the jump.
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The records covered the period of 2003 to 2005. Patrol officials have since been able to produce flight records for 2003 and 2004, but the 2005 records remain missing.
Bumgardner said in the report that Melvin told her to delete the records in February 2006 to "free up space" on the computer. In an interview with The News & Observer on Friday, Bumgardner said she had never expressed a problem with the computer's space capabilities.
Patrol spokesman Capt. Everett Clendenin said the computer was delivered to federal authorities on May 27, as part of a grand jury investigation.
Those missing records are part of wide-ranging state and federal investigations into perks provided to Easley and his family that include access to vehicles, free plane trips, a good price on a coastal lot and a university job for the former first lady, Mary Easley.
The patrol's records have helped show that Easley received free air travel from fundraisers whom he appointed to important positions in state government.
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