Former Clerk Deleted 2 Years Of Emails Before Leaving Office: Town, PD

EAST HAVEN, CT —In her first days on the job as the newly elected Town Clerk, Lisa Balter was given her own email and that of the former Town Clerk Stacy Gravino by the town's assistant administrator Tina Hedley. It was then that Balter discovered that more than two years of Gravino's official town clerk email had been deleted, police and town documents show.

Balter emailed Town Attorney Michael Luzzi "expressing concern" that Gravino’s email account had no records of any emails sent or received, the records show. In late February, Luzzi forwarded that correspondence to police, according to police reports.

On March 1, East Haven Police Department Det. John Trinh responded to a "computer crimes complaint from the town," police reports obtained by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act law show. In those reports, it's learned that Balter was "concerned of the loss of important documents from the removal of e-mails."

Trinh examined a town-issued computer to access Gravino's email account and found that in the “Sent” folder, there were no emails from September 17, 2018 to December 20, 2021. The “Inbox” folder showed an absence of all emails between August 11, 2020 and December 15, 2021, teh police reports read. And the “Deleted” folder showed an absence of all e-mails between the dates of May 27, 2017 to April 09, 2020, in which one deleted e-mail was found, and another absence of all e-mails until December 30, 2021, the report shows

In a police report from April 19, 2022, it's noted by Trinh that Gravino said she "did delete e-mails from her work e-mail prior to the conclusion of her employment with the Town of East Haven." Gravino agreed to meet with police investigators, but a few hours later, she contacted Trinh and said she would not meet with him and was contacting a lawyer for "guidance."

The following day, April 20, Trinh called Assistant State Attorney Melissa Holmes of the New Haven Superior Court who, he said, "determined there were elements of computer crime found in this investigation, but felt this matter would be more appropriately handled by the town through civil proceedings rather than pursuing criminal charges," per the police reports.

And so the criminal case was closed.

When asked if the town planned to pursue civil actions or penalties against Gravino, Luzzi declined to comment.

Patch emailed Gravino asking if she wished to comment. Should that email be returned, this post will be updated.

Here are the police reports obtained by Patch via a Freedom of Information request:

EHPD Town Computer Crime Re... by Ellyn Santiago

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EHPD Town Computer Crime Su... by Ellyn Santiago

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EHPD Computer Crime Supplem... by Ellyn Santiago

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Another FOI request

Last week, another FOI request was filed and sent to Luzzi related to the deleted emails, this one to East Haven Police Chief Edward Lennon by Marc Conte Sr., who has asked for any and all documents related to this investigation.