AP Staff reporter

July 1, 2009
NEW ORLEANS—
A technology expert says potentially years' worth of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's e-mails have been deleted.

Christopher Reade, a partner in a tech firm who assisted the

News & weather text alerts -- free on your cell phone from WGNO!

Louisiana Technology Council in trying to recover data for the mayor's office, said the mailbox was among 22 gigabytes of data removed from a defunct server.

He said the disappearance could not be attributed to server damage, saying Nagin's box appeared to be the only one of dozens of City Hall staffers to have gone missing. He believes it took a "technically competent human action" to remove it.

The disclosure comes a week after federal authorities confirmed a criminal investigation involving the city's technology office, crime camera contracts and "related matters."