copyright the Chronicle August 9, 2017

by Elizabeth Trail

 

NEWPORT — Former Coventry Town Clerk and Treasurer Cynthia Diaz has been ordered not to destroy any more town records or documents and to hand over any still in her possession.

“Defendant has admitted under oath to having destroyed at least some electronic documents,” Orleans Superior Court Judge Robert Bent said in a written order issued on August 3. “To be clear, defendant may not destroy any document or file.”

He ordered Ms. Diaz to turn over all written and electronic town records in her possession by August 20 in preparation for another hearing on August 25.

In court on August 1 for a hearing in the town’s civil suit against her, Ms. Diaz admitted to throwing away a thumb drive containing town financial records after she left office.

“Generally in litigation, we don’t destroy documents,” Judge Bent told Ms. Diaz at the time. “It leads to questions … it shifts the question to the person who destroyed it.”

Ms. Diaz’ management of the documents in her keeping has been a recurring theme ever since forensic accountant Jeff Graham’s audit last year shone the spotlight on irregularities in Coventry’s financial records.

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