RI Chief Alleges Fired FF Deleted Files

Nov. 19 -- EAST GREENWICH, RI -- A former town fire lieutenant charged last week with two counts of computer trespassing deleted hundreds of thousands of files from the department’s computer system, according to Fire Chief Kevin Robinson.

Robert Warner, who was fired from the Fire Department in July, was charged last week by the Attorney General’s office after an investigation by the East Greenwich police.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on Nov. 30.

The Town Council voted unanimously to fire Warner in July while he was under investigation by the state police. He was terminated because of insubordination and failure to follow orders, among other issues, Robinson said.

One of his responsibilities while working for the department was serving as the director of communication, Robinson said. While in that position, he had access to the town network as well as a town laptop assigned to him for documentation.

He resigned as director of communication on June 14, and between then and June 18, 111,000 files were erased from the computer system, Robinson said.

Those files included public safety documents and information collected over the course of his 12 years of service in that position, Robinson said.

Staff at the Fire Department are still working to figure out the extent of what was erased, he said.

“I think it’s unfortunate that he took the actions that he did,” Robinson said. “If he chose that he didn’t want to do the job anymore, he could’ve just walked away. It’s almost a daily evaluation of what other things are missing that we need to have.”

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