The state employee under the gun for leaking many of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s emails to the Willamette Week newspaper will not face criminal charges.
District attorneys Walt Beglau of Marion County and Brad Berry of Yamhill County reviewed the case, and concluded that Michael Rodgers was responsible for improper conduct and violating state policies. They said Rodgers appeared to act outside of the proper process of disseminating potentially sensitive information. However, the DAs decided not to file charges.
Willamette Week reported last week that Rodgers was the "whistleblower" in the ethics scandal that led to Kitzhaber’s resignation in February. Rodgers works in the state Department of Administrative Services as a deputy administrator, but is on paid leave.
According to the district attorneys' statement, Rodgers was contacted in early February to remove personal emails from the state server, a request that came from the governor's office. Rodgers went to DAS director at the time, Michael Jordan, about the request, and Jordan noted a need to follow up.
Kitzhaber had two personal email accounts forwarded to his state account, which Rodgers was told to identify and copy. A technology engineer completed the task and gave Rodgers two thumb drives of emails that were to be delivered to the governor's office for review by Kitzhaber and his staff "to separate any official emails from those discussing personal matters or privileged state business."
Before turning them over, Rodgers copied the emails onto personal thumb drives, which were then given to Willamette Week.
"Rodgers did this knowing that the emails were not pending destruction but rather pending further review prior to any possible valid future release," reads the statement. "Further, the emails themselves were not removed or deleted from the server. In fact, it would have been virtually impossible to accomplish such a task as the state server is backed-up as a matter of protection in two separate locations. Rodgers should have been aware of these back-up measures as the Administrator of the State's Technology Services."
If charged, Rodgers would have faced 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine for each violation. However, the two DAs said "justice would not be served" by charging Rodgers. They said Rodgers' decision to release the emails apparently "stems from extraordinary circumstances seemingly unparalleled in the Oregon political landscape."
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting