copyright the Chronicle February 1, 2017
by Elizabeth Trail
NEWPORT — Immediately after she took the witness stand in Orleans County Superior Court on Monday, Cynthia Diaz invoked the Fifth Amendment.
“Hadn’t you better hear the questions first?” Judge Howard VanBenthuysen asked Ms. Diaz, who appeared in court without an attorney. “Some of them might be to your benefit to answer.”
The Coventry town clerk, treasurer, and delinquent tax collector was back in court to answer a motion for contempt. It was filed on behalf of the town by attorney Paul Gillies after she allegedly failed to meet a December 30 deadline to turn over all original town documents in her possession.
Ms. Diaz brought a thumb drive and a foot-thick stack of papers to court on Monday but that didn’t even come close to being what the town of Coventry believes is missing.
After a lengthy recess to allow Mr. Gillies, forensic accountant Jeff Graham, and Coventry Selectman Scott Morley time to look over the documents, Mr. Gillies pronounced them “insufficient.”
“The missing records we asked for would fill a six-foot by six-foot square about six feet tall,” Mr. Graham told Judge VanBenthuysen, “not the small pile she brought to court today.”
“Are these all the town documents you have?” the judge asked Ms. Diaz.
“All the original town documents, yes,” Ms. Diaz replied, stressing the word “original.”
Judge VanBenthuysen ordered Ms. Diaz to hand over all town records in her possession, whether she considered them original or not.
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