Attorney’s Office to look into this matter further. And it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that Aboulhosn has phoned the U.S.

Was someone in DCR or the Governor’s administration “in on it,” or “too dumb to see what was going on?” I don’t know the answer, but either option is not good. Was this unintentional negligence or a cover-up performed poorly? Was this all done by current and former DCR officials or was there a higher hand involved, such as current or former Department of Homeland Security officials or even officials in the Governor’s Office? One has to wonder: if Aboulhosn had not issued such a scathing order and had recommended for summary judgment, would the documents in question still remain missing? Also, almost by magic, some of the documents that DCR officials had testified has been accidently destroyed are now suddenly available. WV MetroNews Statewide Correspondent Brad McElhinny found out later Wednesday night that interim DCR commissioner Brad Douglas and Phil Sword, the chief counsel for DHS, were fired. Apparently, OT has a policy of deleting emails for former state employees after a certain period of time unless there is a litigation hold placed on the account during pending court cases … more on that in a moment. Some blame was placed on miscommunication between DCR and the Office of Technology, which serves as the IT department for all state departments. Jim Justice and new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia pushed back Wednesday, saying there was no intentional destruction of documents.ĭuring the Wednesday presser, Sorsaia alluded to discipline taken against state employees involved with the snafu. And Aboulhosn’s order was enough to scare the scat out of the Governor’s Office.

“The intentional decisions to not preserve evidence, and to allow evidence to be destroyed was not done by low-level employees of the WVDCR but was perpetrated by the highest persons in the chain of command…”Ī judge calling for summary judgment - which basically means awarding the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit everything they are asking for - is extraordinary. “…The failure to preserve the evidence that was destroyed in this case was intentionally done and not simply an oversight by the witnesses,” Aboulhosn wrote. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn accused officials with the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation of intentionally destroying evidence, such as grievances from inmates and emails from current and former DCR employees. The big story last week was a federal magistrate recommending for summary judgment against the state in a federal class action lawsuit began last year over conditions at the Southern Regional Jail near Beckley.

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