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| Officers sue corrections agency |
| By Concord Monitor |
| Published: 05/02/2005 |
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A group of parole and probation officers is accusing the New Hampshire Department of Corrections of illegally destroying, hiding and altering their personnel records. Four officers who work in Manchester and Nashua claim that department management has "maintained secret personnel files containing unfounded allegations of misconduct," according to a lawsuit filed in Merrimack County Superior Court last week. "People could go ahead and put anything they want in your file, and you wouldn't know it," said Don Valente, one of the officers who filed the suit. Valente and his colleagues want a judge to grant them access to their files. He says the department has been tampering with files to cover up complaints filed by officers over the last few years, including an age discrimination complaint pending in federal court. "It's up to the government to act in an honest and ethical manner, operate an ethical workplace, and they're not doing that," Valente said. This is the latest in a string scuffles between corrections workers and department management that culminated recently in a vote of "no confidence" in Commissioner Stephen Curry. Jeff Lyons, a spokesman for the department, said last week he wasn't aware of the lawsuit or of any hidden or secret files. Employees, he said, can look at their personnel records any time they want, although papers pertaining to ongoing investigations are confidential. Information about unfounded accusations is also removed from personnel files. As for destroying documents, Lyons said, the department occasionally gets rid of old files. "Like any state agency, we will destroy records that are no longer pertinent," he said. |
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