Sexually explicit e-mails spark outcry

Kootenai County’s chief deputy prosecutor sent sexually explicit e-mails and graphic images on his county computer to two former co-workers, who have accused him of sexual harassment.

One of the women also sent Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rick Baughman nude photos and sex videos via county e-mail.

About 50 e-mails between Baughman and former victims advocate Laura Bonneville were released by the county Tuesday in response to a public records request from The Spokesman-Review.

The e-mails – some of which include attachments depicting bestiality, oral sex and a toddler with his genitals exposed, among other graphic images – were also sent and received by other county employees.

Elected officials on Wednesday called for an investigation into potential widespread abuse of county e-mail and Internet use.

“It’s an absolute violation of the public’s trust,” Commissioner Rick Currie said. The e-mails clearly violate the county’s policy governing computer use and could lead to discipline, Currie said.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas placed Baughman on paid administrative leave Nov. 6 and announced an independent investigation into allegations Baughman sexually harassed female colleagues.

Bonneville and legal secretary Kathy Adams, who also received the explicit e-mails, quit their jobs with the prosecutor’s office in the past month. Both women have accused Baughman of ongoing and sometimes physical harassment.

“There have been no complaints filed,” Baughman said Wednesday. He wouldn’t answer questions about the independent investigation into allegations against him or discuss e-mails he sent and received.

Baughman accused the newspaper of the “sensationalizing of people being human beings or friends.”

“How many times do my kids have to undergo the torments of their friends just so you can sell a newspaper?” Baughman said.

The county has refused to release numerous e-mails or say how many e-mails were sent and received by Baughman and other employees of the prosecutor’s office, including the alleged victims.

Bonneville declined to comment Wednesday on the harassment allegations, why she quit her job, or why she sent sexually explicit e-mails and attachments to Baughman. Adams did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The e-mails released Tuesday include:

“Video of an obese woman having sex on a boat deck with someone dressed in a shark costume. The e-mail was sent from a sheriff’s sergeant’s Hotmail account to Bonneville, who forwarded it to Baughman.

“A picture of a partially nude toddler eating cereal, with his penis hanging over the edge of the bowl. “Cereal anyone?” reads the subject line. Forwarded by Baughman to Bonneville, Adams and two other female employees of the prosecutor’s office.

“A slideshow presentation with 12 explicit pictures, including a close-up of female genitalia and numerous nude women, some in a locker room shower. A former sheriff’s employee sent the e-mail to a sheriff’s lieutenant, a sergeant and two deputies, and an employee of the public defender’s office. The sheriff’s sergeant then forwarded the photos to Bonneville, who sent them to Baughman.

“A video of a man with his pants down, being chased by a donkey. When the man falls face first to the ground, the donkey mounts him. Sent by a female county misdemeanor probation officer to Bonneville, who forwarded it to Baughman.

In a separate exchange in December 2005, Bonneville sent Baughman an e-mail with the subject line “wow.”

“I’m starting to feel kinda tingly,” she wrote him.

Baughman sent her a reply saying, “Need help? … assistance? … Can I watch?”

The independent investigator may review the e-mail exchanges as part of the probe into Baughman’s conduct, county attorney Erika Grubbs said Wednesday.

Adams now works for the city of Coeur d’Alene. The sexual harassment allegations are mentioned in e-mails she later exchanged on her city computer with her former county colleagues.

The city provided those e-mails Tuesday in response to a records request from The Spokesman-Review.

In an Oct. 27 e-mail exchange, released by the city, between Adams and Bonneville, Bonneville wrote that Baughman was out of the office hunting.

“So my last two weeks I don’t have to worry about getting my rear slapped,” she wrote.

Baughman e-mailed Adams on Oct. 31, just days before the allegations were made public.

“Miss you,” he wrote. Adams forwarded the e-mail to Deputy Prosecutor Blake Swenson, who encouraged her to give the e-mail to the county’s human resources or legal department.

“It will also corroborate everything you have told them,” Swenson wrote, referring to comments Adams made in her exit interview with the county’s human resources department.

In another e-mail released by the city, Rudy Verschoor, former Kootenai County deputy prosecutor, advises Adams to “say as little as possible to anyone for the time being and if Rick tries to contact you don’t accept his call.”

Swenson forwarded Bonneville an e-mail that Douglas sent to his staff on Nov. 5 regarding the allegations against Baughman.

“Sexual harassment will not be tolerated,” Douglas wrote. He encouraged employees to report suspected harassment “without fear of reprisal, favoritism or condemnation.”

Bonneville responded to Swenson, copying her reply to Adams: “That really makes me want to cry. How come that wasn’t always the message in the office? Think about what a great working environment that would be if this was always the policy, both spoken and unspoken.”

Douglas said Wednesday the investigation, which he ordered, is ongoing and he isn’t sure when it will conclude. Meanwhile, Baughman remains on paid administrative leave.

The prosecutor said he hadn’t seen the e-mails and wasn’t aware of the nature of the e-mails.

He declined to discuss specific exchanges because of the ongoing investigation.

“Any obscenity or pornography is not allowed,” Douglas said. “It’s always been my policy, and all I can say is it’s a violation.”

Sheriff Rocky Watson said there’s a policy against exchanging explicit e-mails, but it’s hard to monitor employee computer use.

“When it comes to our attention, we do take immediate action,” he said. Watson said that, in the past, employees have been addressed during briefing before their shift.

“Anything done on e-mail is considered public information from our point of view,” Watson said. “I have no problem with the fact the media’s got copies of the e-mails. They should not be doing that at work.”

The county’s personnel policy manual states that inappropriate Internet or e-mail use includes transmitting or obtaining “threatening, obscene, harassing or malicious materials.”

The county policy also states that electronic mail is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure. “Employees have no right to personal privacy when using the e-mail system(s) provided by the county,” the policy states.

County attorney Darrin Murphey said Baughman objected to release of any of his e-mails, citing a “constitutional right to privacy” and pending the outcome of an Idaho Supreme Court case.

More than 24 hours after the county provided Bonneville’s and Baughman’s e-mails to the newspaper, Murphey sent a letter asking The Spokesman-Review to return the records to the county.

“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,” Murphey wrote.

In the case pending before the Supreme Court, the newspaper sued to obtain e-mails between Douglas and former employee Marina Kalani after it was alleged the two were having an affair, which both have denied.

A district judge ruled the e-mails are public record, but the records haven’t been released pending appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. Douglas has since dropped his appeal.