Reuben Young, the attorney in former Gov. Mike Easley’s office who vetted public records requests, says he had “no knowledge” that Easley had a private e-mail account. That’s because, Young said, when he would review e-mails in records requests, he looked only at the body of the message and not who sent it or received it.
By failing to identify the senders or recipients, or choosing not to notice whether the e-mails were sent from government accounts or private e-mail providers, it would have been difficult for Young to determine whether the documents he was reviewing were public records dealing with state business or personal correspondence.
Young’s admission came to light in a sworn deposition that’s part of an open-records lawsuit filed by several media organizations and the John Locke Foundation (publishers of Carolina Journal). The lawsuit was filed after Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for Easley’s Department of Health and Human Services, charged in a 2008 affidavit that Easley ordered the systematic deletion of e-mails that should have been considered public records.
You can view the depositions (PDF) here and here.
When Young reviewed documents from open-records requests, he said, “I looked at the documents, one, to determine whether they were responsive to the request, and number two, whether they were a public document. I did not look at them to determine where they came from.”
Attorney Hugh Stevens, who interviewed Young for the deposition, seemed puzzled. “[I]f you look at an e-mail message, either a printout of it or in electronic form, can’t you tell where it came from?” he asked Young.
Young: “If you look at the entire document, yes. … I looked at the body of the document to see if it was responsive to the request and whether it was a public document.”
Stevens: “[D]o you recall ever noting that the documents you were reviewing … were sent to or from private e-mail accounts?”
Young: “I’m sure at some point or another, I did look at a document and noticed where it came from, but that didn’t impact what I was trying to determine with regard to the document.”
Young also said that he didn’t check to see whether e-mails submitted for review were sent from government or private e-mail accounts. “I assumed that when the documents came to me, they were sent to me as a result of someone sharing the request with people that may have possible records. And I looked at those records to determine whether they were — whether it was a public document or not.”
Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, who’s presiding over the lawsuit, ordered the deposition after former Communications Director Sherri Johnson revealed earlier this year that Young had encouraged staffers to communicate “sensitive” matters by telephone rather than e-mail.
In separate depositions, Johnson and three other former press officials disclosed that Easley had maintained a private e-mail account, using as his online identity “Nick Danger” spelled backward. (“Danger” was a private detective in “Firesign Theatre,” the satirical radio series from the 1970s.) CJ, the News & Observer, and The Charlotte Observer have reported that — in numerous public records requests made to Easley — none has ever received e-mails authored by the former governor.
Former press secretary Renee Hoffman, who has retired from government service, recalled in her deposition separate orders from communications directors Johnson and Cari Boyce to delete e-mails to and from Easley.
Notes taken by at least two public information officers at meetings with the governor’s senior staff confirmed Hoffman’s testimony. In his deposition, Young said he did not know whether anyone on the governor’s staff had ordered the destruction of e-mails or other documents that responded to a public records request.
He also said that he could not recall reviewing any documents with Easley that were responding to records requests dealing with travel, flights, or real estate transactions including the governor’s purchase of a waterfront lot in the Cannonsgate resort community in Carteret County.
Young first went to work for Easley as an assistant attorney general in 1995. When Easley was elected governor in 2000, Young moved to Easley’s legal staff, becoming chief legal counsel in 2003 and remaining in that position until the end of 2008.
While Young was aware that Easley had an e-mail account provided by the state, he could not recall receiving or sending any e-mails during the time he working for Easley. Young did send memos and other documents to the governor, but he could not remember corresponding by e-mail. He said he was unaware of Easley’s personal e-mail account.
Attorney General Roy Cooper argued last year that even if Easley’s e-mail policies violated the open records law, the media groups had no standing to sue because Easley was no longer in office. Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning rejected that argument and ordered the depositions. It is unclear whether Manning will demand further depositions or when a trial might be scheduled. Gov. Bev Perdue — with Cooper’s endorsement — has attempted to settle the lawsuit.
Rick Henderson is managing editor of Carolina Journal.