Many of you have wondered how SReporter Taryn Brodwater got her hands on the illicit county e-mails, including county civil deputy Darrin Murphey and the county computer guys. Here's what Taryn told me. Seems we were tipped off to ask for e-mails between Judge Barry Watson and a legal secretary. So, we did. The county computer guys handed them over on Tuesday, after they'd been previewed by Murphey, and ... Taryn found absolutely nothing inappropriate on them. However, the next morning, Taryn reviewed the CDisc again, spotting a subfolder entitled, "Deleted Items" (with the No. 50, in parenthesis). Curious, she opened it and -- voila! -- discovered the 50 e-mails circulated among Rick Baughman, Laura Bonneville and others. Obviously, the county never intended to give us those e-mails. Just as obvious, someone tried to make sure that we never saw them. Call it an early Christmas present. Taryn's reaction. Ohmigosh. And the rest is herstory.

DFO: You can read the letter from Civil Deputy Darrin L. Murphey to Taryn asking for the CDisk back below.

I understand that the compact disk produced by the County in response to your public records request for the e-mail between Kathy Adams and Barry Watson, inadvertently included certain e-mail in a "deleted items" folder. Those records inadvertently provided to the Spokesman contain information that another County employee has claimed a right to privacy and were not intended to be released by the County. Please return to Kooenai County any and all records contained in the "deleted items" folder. Thank you for your cooperation -- Darrin L. Murphey, Civil Attorney.

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