Lewiston city clerk faces felony charges
for altering documents
Sunday, April 6, 2008 1:29 PM PDT
LEWISTON (AP) — Prosecutors have charged Lewiston’s city clerk with two felonies, accusing her of altering city documents.
Rebecca L. O’Connor, 46, was charged with two counts of falsifying the official city record in 2nd District Court after an investigation last week.
‘‘The evidence is overwhelming, and that she was a public officer entrusted with the accuracy and reliability of public records, and we alleged that she violated that trust,’’ Nez Perce County Prosecutor Dan Spickler told the Lewiston Tribune.
According to court documents, O’Connor is accused of extending the terms of two people on the city’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board through the year 2012 without taking the action before the City Council for approval.
Prosecutors contend that after Mayor Douglas Havens questioned O’Connor about the extensions, she changed the agenda and minutes of an Oct. 15, 2007, meeting to make it look as if the council had reappointed Marcia Banta to the board then.
Banta’s term actually expired in December, according to court records, although Banta said she believed she was supposed to be on the board through 2009.
Havens has declined to discuss the case.
O’Connor, who has worked for the city since 1991, remains an active city employee, city manager John C. Krauss said Friday.
‘‘The city’s going to need to review the terms of those board members,’’ Krauss said.
O’Connor was fired last August but was reinstated weeks later following the decision of a city appeals board. The details of her dismissal were never made public.
Lewiston attorney Charles Brown, who represents O’Connor, said her professional life had been difficult since she was reinstated.
