Ravenstahl Accused Of Tampering With UPMC Tax-Exempt Documents
PITTSBURGH (KDKA)-- There are some new problems for Pittsburgh's former mayor.
This time it involves UPMC.
The battle started last March when former Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and the city challenged UPMC's tax-exempt status.
"I think they're gonna be hard pressed to be able to prove how they're operating the same way as the Little Sister of the Poor or the local church, true, genuine non-profits," said Ravenstahl. "UPMC, I'm afraid not."
The suit, an attempt to get UPMC to pay more in taxes. At the time, UPMC is suggesting it's much more than that.
"I think the mayor is trying to deflect any attention away from his legal and ethical troubles," said UPMC Spokesman Paul Wood.
Fast forward a year, Mayor Bill Petudo claims $200,000 worth of missing and damaged items were from the mayor's office, including the former mayor's computer.
The computer has been returned. Now, UPMC wants to know what may or may not have happened to it after Ravenstahl took it out of his office.
In an order filed Monday, UPMC says the mayor signed a preservation order before he left office.
In other words, he agreed not to do anything to any documents on his computer and if he did, it could result in "sanctions, whether, monetary, evidentiary or both.
In the order, UPMC states media reports strongly suggest that Ravenstahl may have destroyed data from his computer during the week and a half that he took it home.
As per the order, UPMC is requesting the opportunity to depose the mayor. UPMC also wants to hire an independent forensics expert to examine the computer.
Ravenstahl's attorney says the former mayor didn't do anything to the files, however.
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