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Lake Geneva computers to be searched

LAKE GENEVA — City officials and city council members have agreed to allow a company to search for e-mails and other documents pertaining to the proposed Mirbeau-Hummel development on their computers, according to a recent federal court filing.

Data Recon of Verona, a forensic examination and data recovery company, will conduct the search, and the city’s insurance company will pay the cost of imaging and searching the computers, according to the document.

Mayor Bill Chesen said the company on Thursday and Friday will mirror the hard drives of the personal computers of city officials and council members either at their homes or at City Hall. The hard drives of city computers will not be searched, he said.

The company then will conduct a keyword search for pertinent e-mails and other documents, Chesen said.

The city will not be without computers during the search, and city officials and council members will be without their computers only as long as it takes the company to download the contents of their hard drives, Chesen said.

The city’s insurance company is picking up the cost of the search as part of its defense of the city in the pending federal case.

The agreement puts an end to a dispute between Mirbeau of Geneva Lake, which in July filed a $29 million federal lawsuit against the city, and city officials over the preservation of relevant e-mails and other documents.

Lisle Blackbourn, the attorney representing Mirbeau, filed a motion in September demanding city officials turn over their computers and other electronic storage devices for forensic examination as part of the discovery phase of the pending federal case.

He argued that paper copies of documents were not sufficient. He also argued some city officials might not have produced or might have deleted sensitive e-mails and other documents.

Amy Doyle, the attorney representing the city, filed a response in October, saying city officials handed over “several boxes” of documents in response to the request.

She argued that allegations that some documents were being deleted were not enough to warrant the sequestering of computers.

Judge J.P. Stadtmueller denied Mirbeau’s request. He wrote in his ruling that Mirbeau failed to demonstrate why extensive forensic analysis of city computers is necessary but also noted that city officials had been “less than serious” in fulfilling their obligations with respect to the request for documents.

Doyle declined to comment on the case, and Chesen said he was unable to answer a question about why city officials and council members agreed to have their computers searched despite the judge’s favorable ruling.

Discovery of evidence must be completed by Oct. 30, 2010, according to the court filing.