Rimkus Consulting Group Inc. v. Cammarata - Ballard Spahr LLP

Case 4:07-cv-00405 Document 450 Filed in TXSD on 02/19/10 Page 71 of 139
financial spreadsheets for specific Rimkus offices after his resignation. Emails obtained
from Homestead show that Cammarata forwarded language in Rimkus reports from his home
email account to his U.S. Forensic email account; Cammarata admitted giving the language
from a Rimkus report to a U.S. Forensic Associates engineer for use on a project. Still
another email from Bell to himself, which the defendants did not originally produce with the
attachments, shows that Bell was in possession of Rimkus client-contact information in April
2008.
The evidence that the defendants knew about the litigation with Rimkus when they
deleted the emails; the inconsistencies in the explanations for deleting the emails; the failure
to disclose information about personal email accounts that were later revealed as having been
used to obtain and disseminate information from Rimkus; and the fact that some of the emails
reveal what the defendants had previously denied—that they took information from Rimkus
and used at least some of it in competing with Rimkus—support the conclusion that there is
sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the defendants intentionally and in bad
faith deleted emails relevant to setting up and operating U.S. Forensic, to obtaining
information from Rimkus and using it for U.S. Forensic, and to soliciting Rimkus clients, to
prevent the use of these emails in litigation in Louisiana or Texas.
4. Relevance and Prejudice
Despite the evidence of spoliation and efforts to conceal it, the record also shows that
Rimkus was able to obtain a significant amount of evidence. Rimkus had the laptop Bell
used during his employment, although Rimkus delayed in examining it. That laptop revealed
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