Huckleberries:The story behind the illicit e-mail story

Many have asked how SReporter Taryn Brodwater got ahold of illicit e-mails swapped among Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rick Baughman, ex-victims advocate Laura Bonneville and Sheriff Rocky’s troops. Huckleberries is prepared to tell you. It started with a public records request. A tipster told Taryn to ask for e-mails exchanged by Judge Barry Watson and a legal secretary. She did. On Tuesday, the county computer geeks handed her a CD containing those e-mails after they’d been scrutinized by Civil Deputy Darrin Murphey. Taryn found nothing inappropriate on them. However, the next morning, Taryn reviewed the CD again, spotting a subfolder titled, “deleted items.” (and a notation that there were 50 deletions). Curious, she opened the folder and – voila! – found the lewd e-mails circulated among Baughman, Bonneville and others. Taryn’s reaction? Omigosh. Christmas had come early. It was obvious that someone had committed a snafu when Murphey sent us a note: “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 Kootenai County any and all records contained in the ‘deleted items’ folder.” Don’t you love it when a lawyer sez “please”?