The Right Expert + The Right Motions = The Right Results

Janet Kenton Walker, Esq.

“I don’t understand. I didn’t do this. Am I going to jail?” That was the question posed to Janet Kenton-Walker, of counsel to BLC. The client, a 23 year old recent college graduate at her first real job, found herself in an employment nightmare. No matter how hard she worked, there was no pleasing her employers. When something went wrong, she was the first one blamed, even if the problem had nothing to do with her. It came as no surprise to her, therefore, when she was told that her services would no longer be needed. Little did she know, however, that the nightmare had only just begun. Less than one week after she was terminated, her former employer filed criminal felony charges against her alleging that she had destroyed the computer systems of the company resulting in the total destruction of both the systems and the data contained on the company’s computers.

Time being of the essence, Janet immediately secured the services of a forensic computer expert to conduct the appropriate examination of the computers and filed the appropriate motions to both preserve and gain access to the company’s computers. The expert made a forensic image of the computer hard drives and determined that the backup system had never been properly installed and, therefore, the daily backup system failed to operate long before our client had even worked there. The expert also discovered that despite the backup system not working, the data our client supposedly destroyed was still on the hard drives. Finally, the expert was able to find that someone working for the company had intentionally tampered with the computers after the Court had issued a preservation order, thus resulting in the spoliation of critical evidence necessary to exonerate our client.

Working closely with the computer expert to draft the appropriate report, Janet prepared a Motion to Dismiss using the computer expert’s findings. When the prosecutor was shown the report, Janet was able to convince the prosecutor that there was no case against our client. With no objection from the Commonwealth, the Court allowed the motion and dismissed all charges with prejudice.

[Janet Kenton Walker was of counsel at BLC from 1/2009 to 4/2009; she is now a Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.]