A consultant group accused of violating Ohio state law for destroying documents related to its investigation of data theft at Ohio University recovered those documents in early August. Moran Technology Consulting of Naperville, Ill., which conducted an audit of the university's Information Technology department after network security breaches, recovered notes from 22 interviews the group conducted, which are at the center of a legal battle between the university and two fired IT administrators.Some notes were recovered using software that found deleted documents, and others were found in archived e-mails, said Charles Moran, president of the consulting group. We got everything. Suing the university for the disclosure of those notes and other documents are former administrators Tom Reid and Todd Acheson, who have claimed the interview notes are crucial to the defense that they're mounting to keep their jobs. The two have appealed their firing to the university.But neither of the men nor their lawyers were informed that the notes were discovered weeks before they filed a lawsuit seeking those and other records Aug. 22.We have a lawsuit pending and they still haven't told us
about the notes said Fred Gittes, attorney for Acheson. I'm going by what I read in the newspapers he added.Moran has said it destroyed the notes as a typical procedure. In mid-summer, Moran made no indication it would work to recover the documents, violating Moran's contract with the university and possibly Ohio's open records law. As soon as we filed a lawsuit they miraculously find these documents Reid said. It seems really odd.Moran said the search for the interview notes started in early August, and the company gave the documents to the university because, he said, I'm tired of it.The university has until at least Sept. 19 to file a response to the lawsuit. They might have more time because of an amendment added after the suit was delivered to the university, said John Burns, director of legal affairs, adding that the university is still considering its options.The university contracted Moran for more than more than $342,000 to conduct an independent audit of the IT department following five security breaches that compromised more than 173,000 personal identities of students, faculty and university staff. The university expected to spend up to $8 million recovering from the breaches.A heavily redacted or cleaned version of Moran's concluding report singled out both Reid and Acheson for failures in the IT department that allegedly led to the breaches.Both men have said they were unfairly targeted because they were not in charge of the servers that were compromised. Administering those servers was Duane Starkey, who was placed on administrative leave immediately following the breaches, but has since returned to work.As part of the lawsuit, Reid and Acheson are suing to see the full version of that report. Reid previously said he was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before looking at it, which he said he refused to sign.That's like accusing someone of committing a crime and refusing to provide evidence
Gittes said. What are they hiding?
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Sean Gaffney
