Avon Township settles with ex-supervisor

Avon Township's elected officials have accepted a $1,200 settlement for computer file destruction directed by former supervisor Shirley Christian just before she left office last year.

Township trustees and Supervisor Sam Yingling voted 3-1 at a meeting Wednesday night, with one abstention, to accept the partial payment of a $2,000 bill. Trustee Sherry Ridge was the lone objector, while Trustee Chris Ditton abstained.

"We're done," Yingling said Thursday.

In September, the township sent a letter to Christian demanding the $2,000 in restitution for repairs to the damaged supervisor's office computer, a replacement model, file restoration for backup tapes and attorney fees.

Lake County prosecutors began looking into the computer file erasure at Yingling's request after he took over May 18. The state's attorney's office concluded the files were accidentally destroyed, but suggested Christian pay for the computer damage.

Christian's attorney, Rudolph Magna, worked with the township's lawyer to strike the $1,200 settlement of the $2,000 bill. She originally offered $764.

Magna examined the bills before submitting the first offer, saying she didn't owe for a new computer if the older one at the root of the incident was fixed.

Christian has said all of the files were accidentally zapped by her daughter and a friend - who acted on her request - with a program more powerful than expected. She said she wanted to remove only e-mail addresses and other personal information.

Yingling wrote in a township document that Karen Christian-Smith and Gregory Koeppen used Active@KillDisk hard-drive eraser on the computer. KillDisk destroys all data on hard and floppy drives.

Avon Township includes all or part of Grayslake, Hainesville, Third Lake and the Round Lake area.