Report: Longview superintendent suspected of deleting messages in MM case
A police investigation related to allegations of sexual assault at Mark Morris High School found that Longview School District Superintendent Karen Cloninger likely deleted messages and emails containing public information.
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Newly released public records on the case show the Longview Police Department searched a laptop and two cellphones belonging to Cloninger in February and found evidence of numerous deleted messages and emails. The report also described "suspicious gaps" in dates and times between messages and emails.
According to state law, altering, hiding or deleting public records is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in jail, a fine of up to $1,000 or both.
Cloninger wrote in an email that the district is cooperating with the police investigation and that it maintains copies of all digital communications involving district-issued devices for a set amount of time.
"Individual users do not have the ability to permanently delete messages during the retention period," she wrote.
She did not say how long the retention period lasts.
The report states that police recovered some deleted messages but did not include any information about their contents.
Karen Cloninger
Karen Cloninger
At least some of the deleted emails were related to the sexual assault allegations, which the district investigated internally before the police became involved.
Two Mark Morris students were arrested Feb. 19 and charged with second-degree rape and unlawful imprisonment. A possible combined trial for both teens was set for the week of July 13.
Cloninger and other district officials have faced criticism for what community members describe as a lack of transparency around the case.
The seized laptop was Cloninger's work computer, while the cellphones were both personal devices. Cloninger told officers that she had cloned her personal phone in preparation for them taking it, but the officers decided to confiscate both as it was not clear what was on either phone, and they were both associated with the same phone number, the report states.
Cloning a phone means copying its data onto another device, which can then be used like the original to make calls or send messages from the same number.
Officers found her cloned phone because it buzzed inside her purse while police were collecting her original phone, and they asked her about the noise, according to the report.
An officer also searched phones belonging to Mark Morris boys basketball coach Ken Kelly, Principal Aaron Whitright and district Executive Director of Student Services Andrew Schoonover.
The report states that Kelly, Whitright and Schoonover also discussed the district's investigation on their phones, but does not describe them deleting any messages. It does not state whether their phones were personal devices or school-issued.
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