MANCHESTER — A Superior Court judge will privately review documents related to an investigation into inappropriate credit card charges allegedly made by the former Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School District superintendent and determine if the records should be made public.

Judge Kenneth Brown, presiding in Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District, on Thursday gave the district 24 hours to provide him with the documents including the investigative report and sealed minutes of a Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School Board meeting. He will review them privately and decide if they should be made public and turned over to the New Hampshire Union Leader, which filed a Right-to-Know Petition.

The documents include an investigative report by lawyer Dean Eggert of Manchester, an independent investigator hired by the school board to look into the expenditures as well as minutes of a non-public session. The board reviewed the investigative report on April 24 in that non-public session and immediately sealed the report and minutes of the meeting for 50 years.At that same meeting, the board announced the resignation of School Superintendent Trevor Ebel, but said he was being hired for 30 days as an “independent contractor.” As of now, Ebel, 60, will be eligible for an annual pension of about $18,000.

An independent audit of the district for the 2011 fiscal year, received by the school board in February, revealed payroll advances and unreimbursed personal purchases made by Ebel with the district's credit card. The charges covered alcohol, limousines and movies, as well as meals at the Bedford Village Inn and Giorgio's Restaurant in Merrimack.

Some of the expenses were reimbursed but about $2,100 in charges could not be accounted for, according to the audit conducted by Plodzik & Sanderson.

The school district maintains releasing the investigative report and meeting minutes might violate Ebel's privacy rights or adversely affect his reputation. The district also argued internal investigations must remain confidential to promote honest and candid witness responses and to ensure thorough investigation.


Attorney Gregory V. Sullivan of the Malloy and Sullivan law firm of Manchester and Hingham, Mass., representing Union Leader Corp., told the judge he was OK with names of individuals who cooperated in the investigation being redacted, that is, blacked out in the documents that are released. As for Ebel's privacy rights, he maintained Ebel has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the investigation into his alleged misuse of public funds.

He said the case was not an instance where an employee was disciplined but one where an individual was allowed to resign. And it is the performance of the governing entities and their actions which Sullivan said “we are seeking to review” in requesting the documents.

School district Lawyer John F. Teague of Concord contended the district needs to keep such investigative reports confidential in order to protect employees and others who come forward in such investigations.

He said in court documents the district is obligated, as a public employer, to object to the release of documents that pertain to its internal personnel practices, as well as documents which might constitute an invasion of privacy.

Ebel chose not to intervene in the case, according to court records, but Teague wrote it falls on the school district to assert the confidential nature of the documents on behalf of Ebel and other district employees involved in the investigation.

Geoffrey Brock, chairman of the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School Board, after the brief hearing, said he believes the court will rule in favor of the board because otherwise, he said, “public humiliation will be made part of discipline.”