Complaint: McCrory violated confidentiality

COEUR d'ALENE - The attorney representing City Councilman Mike Kennedy wants a document reviewer held in contempt of court for reportedly violating a confidentiality agreement.

Voter information pertaining to the recently-reviewed absentee envelopes wasn't supposed to be shared outside the courtroom and Bill McCrory violated that privacy agreement, a complaint filed Thursday by attorney Scott Reed states.

"Information he observed in the examination of election documents ... he swore he would keep to himself as confidential," the complaint says.

McCrory's envelope findings were filed as a court affidavit, and later posted on the website, Opencda.com, along with a newspaper article about the affidavit. Both the affidavit and article revealed voter identities.

McCrory also discussed the affidavit and voter information July 17 in an online discourse on the website after the postings, according to the complaint. McCrory signed a confidentiality agreement pertaining to the envelopes and voter privacy on June 22.

"Such internal publication constituted a far reaching invasion of the privacy of at least 17 persons named with addresses," the filing states of the voters whose names and or addresses were made public.

Contempt of court is a court order that declares a person disobeyed a judge or court's order.

The filing also requests that the affidavit, which claimed it had found nearly 900 anomalies, be thrown out. It calls the findings "hearsay," and filed without an accompanying motion or anything pending on the court calendar simply "to generate news stories" and spread the confidential information.

McCrory isn't qualified to give legal opinions on document examinations, the filing also says.

It's the most recent filing in the election challenge suit over the city's Nov. 3, 2009, general election.

Seat 2 challenger Jim Brannon is challenging his five-vote loss to incumbent Mike Kennedy on grounds that inadmissible ballots had been cast.

McCrory, a Brannon supporter who attempted unsuccessfully to intervene in the lawsuit, signed a court affidavit claiming he found 877 anomalies after reviewing the absentee ballot envelopes July 7.

Those alleged anomalies included questionable elector signatures and envelopes that weren't dated or time stamped by the election staff.

But Kootenai County officials said last month that the alleged anomalies are likely just clerical nuances that only appear like mistakes to the untrained eye.

But by revealing that information, McCrory broke the rules, the complaint says.

"Any information that I observe in the examination of any election documents provided by Kootenai County regarding the November 3, 2009, City of Coeur d'Alene General Election, will be kept to myself as confidential," the confidentiality agreement McCrory signed reads. "And I will not discuss the same with any person, unless they too have signed a copy."

McCrory declined comment.

Dan English, Kootenai County clerk, said he was surprised McCrory had filed the affidavit and was glad that the issue is going before the judge.

"In this day and age of identity theft I think there are very valid reasons why those kinds of disclosures should be tightly regulated," English said in a written statement.

The contempt of court hearing is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17, in front of 1st District Judge Charles Hosack.