Fire Chief, Ex-Public Safety Director Received Hacked Emails, Former Official Tells Hearing

Fire Chief Richard Blohm and former Public Safety Director Angel Alicea both received emails allegedly hacked from the Mayor's office, former Business Administrator Arch Liston said during a civil service hearing on Friday.

for allegedly hacking into the mayor’s email account and leaking confidential information. The complaint against Ricciardi listed two recipients of the leaked emails, but neither were identified.

The two addresses to which the emails were forwarded, Liston said, were those of Alicea and Blohm.

Ricciardi allegedly had set up an archive file, "so that it would automatically forward all e-mails sent to the Mayor and two high-ranking Mayor's Office employees to the archive file," according to the complaint.

"Those emails shouldn't have been there at all," Liston said, as he testified at the adminstrative hearing of Jonathan Cummins -- Ricciardi’s assistant -- who was fired in May 2011 and is appealing the termination. "They shouldn't have been forwarded to these people."

Reached for comment, Blohm said he couldn't respond because of a "gag order" by Mayor Dawn Zimmer. He referred all questions to a city spokesman.

"That is not true," City Spokesman Juan Melli responded on Friday afternoon. "He is completely free to discuss his role in this matter."

Liston said that the city first suspected there was a security breach when he started receiving Open Public Record Act requests for documents he had just received. 

"It got into a pattern," Liston said. "I'd be receiving documents and got OPRA requests a day or two after I got [the documents]." This went on, Liston said, for about two or three months. 

The incident that ultimately caused the city to call in a forensic agency to investigate the issue was leaked information about a candidate for public safety director, Liston said.

While the city had not released any information about that candidate, "his name got out to the street, people were doing background checks," Liston said. "I was told [the name of the candidate] got to the fire and police chief."

Police Chief Anthony Falco said on Friday morning that he had "no comment at this time." Falco wasn't mentioned in the complaint, nor was his email one of the addresses that received the leaked information, as revealed by Liston on Friday.

The criminal case against Ricciardi is pending.