A former Milton City Hall employee is facing a felony charge after she allegedly intentionally deleted critical files from her city computer on the day that she submitted her resignation letter.
Deborah Cates, 58, was an administrative accounts clerk for the city, according to a Milton Police Department arrest report.
On Dec. 9, she submitted a notice to the city that she would be retiring effective Dec. 10, the report said. That same day, she logged in and out of her city computer and left the building.
On Dec. 10, a technology supervisor logged onto her computer to retrieve documents, and found that critical files and documents had been permanently deleted from her computer and purged from the recycle bin, according to the report.
The documents included spreadsheets tracking daily deposits, quarterly tax reports and insurance records for payments to retirees.
In an interview with police Dec. 30, Cates said she had been in conflict with her supervisor for the previous three months, according to the report.
She also added that a week before she quit, she was informed that Human Resources had received several complaints about her regarding threatening speech and a hostile work environment.
She told investigators that on her last day, Dec. 9, she logged onto her computer and accidentally deleted the files and spreadsheets.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Former Milton clerk arrested after retirement