Douglas should release e-mails

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas remains in denial although the evidence mounts that something fishy has taken place in his office.

Now, former employee Dannie Fast Swanson claims she was harassed by Douglas because she questioned the management ability of Marina Kalani. Kalani is the juvenile drug court director who resigned under fire in March and later received a $70,000 settlement after she threatened to sue the county over a memo criticizing her job performance. In her tort claim, Swanson, a former probation officer, contends she was forced to shoulder some of Kalani’s workload. Also, she claims, Douglas created a “nearly intolerable working environment” because he was having an affair with Kalani.

Repeatedly, Douglas has defended Kalani and denied having an improper relationship with her. Also, he has repeatedly fought to keep private hundreds of e-mails that he exchanged with his former employee during office work hours, claiming they were private correspondence despite court rulings to the contrary. In view of this latest twist in a courthouse drama that has smeared the reputation of the prosecutor’s office, The Spokesman-Review repeats its request that Douglas support his denials of impropriety by agreeing to release unredacted copies of all 1,060 work e-mails he and Kalani exchanged.

Cowles Publishing Co., which owns this newspaper, sued the county to gain access to all of the e-mails. The insurance company representing the county has already paid one settlement involving a former employee of the prosecutor’s office, and it will soon deal with another seeking five times as much in redress. It’s important for the public to know what’s in the Douglas-Kalani e-mails. Do they disclose problems with Kalani’s handling of the defunct juvenile drug court program? Did Douglas create a hostile environment and foster a lawsuit by favoring or becoming romantically involved with Kalani?

The nature of Douglas’ relationship with Kalani has been the source of speculation since county commissioners asked to see work e-mails exchanged between the two during an investigation into the demise of the juvenile drug court program. Later, 461 of the 1,060 e-mails were released, many heavily redacted. The few e-mails obtained privately by The Spokesman-Review hint of an improper relationship.

Douglas has remained a staunch defender of Kalani’s work performance. In February, he sided with her in a sharply worded statement when Detention Manager J.T. Taylor set the stage for Kalani’s future settlement by raising questions in a memo about Kalani’s performance.

The public is weary of elected officials who pretend nothing is wrong when it’s obvious that something is. Douglas should stop stonewalling and agree to release the controversial e-mails.