Lewiston’s city clerk faces two felony charges

LEWISTON – Prosecutors have charged Lewiston’s city clerk with two felonies, accusing her of altering city documents.

Rebecca L. O’Connor, 46, was charged with two counts of falsifying the official city record in 2nd District Court after an investigation last week.

“The evidence is overwhelming,” Nez Perce County Prosecutor Dan Spickler said.

According to court documents, O’Connor is accused of extending the terms of two people on the city’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board through the year 2012 without taking the action before the City Council for approval.

Prosecutors contend that after Mayor Douglas Havens questioned O’Connor about the extensions, she changed the agenda and minutes of an Oct. 15, 2007, meeting to make it look as if the council had reappointed Marcia Banta to the board then.

Banta’s term actually expired in December, according to court records, although Banta said she believed she was supposed to be on the board through 2009.

Havens has declined to discuss the case.

O’Connor, who has worked for the city since 1991, remains an active city employee, city manager John C. Krauss said Friday.

“The city’s going to need to review the terms of those board members,” Krauss said.

O’Connor was fired in August but wa-s reinstated weeks later after the decision of a city appeals board. Details of her dismissal were never made public.

She is scheduled to appear in court April 23.

O’Connor faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of the charges.