Dean Bresciani, the president of North Dakota State University (NDSU) will be investigated by Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota Attorney General, for felony charge of tampering with public records.
In April, on behalf of an unnamed legislator, the North Dakota Legislative Council demanded emails from a number of State Board of Higher Education officials including each university president from July 1, 2012 to April 28.
When NDSU authorities failed to comply with the request immediately, Claire Holloway, an attorney with the North Dakota University System, said that the information technology staff from the State Board of Higher Education discovered 45,375 erased emails from Bresciani's official inbox on April 29th, the same day the open records request was made.
The Council claims that Bresciani violated federal laws by deleting more than 45,000 emails that may have been linked to the request.
The state's open records law states that 'an electronic copy of a record must be provided upon request.' If a public official is found guilty of destroying, removing or concealing public records, without lawful authority, he/she faces a felony charge of up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
"President Bresciani did not delete 45,000 emails on April 29. We are looking into the matter," Laura McDaniel, NDSU assistant vice president said.
".....then it appears the deletion may have been on or before April 29th. It may have not been on that day but two weeks prior to that day sometime in the two weeks prior to that day," Jack McDonald- Media Attorney said.
