By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Records on all the wards of the Jasper County public administrator have been removed from the Carthage office, and it is unclear when they will be returned, Angie Casavecchia, the new administrator, said Monday.

Casavecchia said computer files on the wards have been erased from office computer systems, and that she has been told that paper files are in the office of John Podleski, attorney for Rita Hunter, the former public administrator.

Why the records were removed and erased was not available from officials Monday. So too was whether such action violated state law.

The Globe’s calls to Hunter and Podleski regarding the records were not returned Monday.

Casavecchia said she views the immediate lack of access to the records as posing potential harm to the wards of the county.

“I don’t have a stitch of paper on anyone,” she said. “All the filing cabinets are empty.”

She said Gretchen Long, new attorney for the public administrator’s office, has contacted Podleski to request the files.

“They are working out a way to get the information that John has back to me,” Casavecchia said.

She said an office computer has been taken to a technician in an attempt to restore the data that was erased.

Casavecchia, who defeated Hunter in last year’s Republican primary election, said Hunter came to her house on New Year’s morning, turned over an office pager and told her that paper files on county wards were at Podleski’s office.

She said she did not learn that no records were available — on computer files or otherwise — until Friday.

Casavecchia said it has put her in a position of not being able to take care of county wards because she has no way of knowing who they are, where they are or what their needs are.

“I got a call this morning from a facility in Salisbury about a ward who wants to refuse a chemotherapy treatment, and I don’t have any information, medical records or anything on that person,” she said.