[Robe]

"Lerner came to work one day in late spring 2011 and was surprised to flick on her computer to find a “blue screen,” he said

I have had my share of fixing computers... but if she got the Blue Screen, that is generated by Windows XP OpSys, that means her disk was spinning up and attempting to read the boot sector.
There should have been readable data sectors. I call BS on the Hard Drive crash.
They're a lot more hands in this pie, someone was ordered to destroy the drive and left a clue, or someone with little experience attempted to make it look like a HD crash.

[rottndog]

Here’s the question I would like to have answered...we know the emails were backed up on multiple servers, and archived as well. If in fact the e-mails no longer exist, it could only be by deliberate and illegal acts. WHO would have the administrative authority on these systems to access and delete the e-mails, and what if any record of that access would exist and could be retrieved?

[VinceASA]

Again, emails are not just stored on a local hard drive. They are primarily stored on a central email server. This allows multiple devices, like her PC and her Blackberry to access them.

My laptop hard drive crashed last year. All I did was log on to my new laptop as me and ALL of my historical emails downloaded to it from the email server. Didn’t lose a thing.

Also, most email servers archive messages after 90 days.

[Liz]

Nice take----your computer expertise is much appreciated. As for the legalities, people have gone to jail for "computer tampering" and other electronic mischief.

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Some state laws generally define Computer Tampering thusly: A person who acts without authority or who exceeds authorization of use commits computer tampering by:

1. Accessing, altering, damaging or destroying any computer, computer system or network, or any part of a computer, computer system or network, with the intent to devise or execute any scheme or artifice to defraud or deceive, or to control property or services by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises.

2. Knowingly altering, damaging, deleting or destroying computer programs or data.

3. Knowingly introducing a computer contaminant into any computer, computer system or network.

4. Recklessly disrupting or causing the disruption of computer, computer system or network services or denying or causing the denial of computer or network services to any authorized user of a computer, computer system or network.

5. Recklessly using a computer, computer system or network to engage in a scheme or course of conduct that is directed at another person and that seriously alarms, torments, threatens or terrorizes the person. For the purposes of this paragraph, the conduct must both:

(a) Cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress.

(b) Serve no legitimate purpose.

6. Preventing a computer user from exiting a site, computer system or network-connected location in order to compel the user's computer to continue communicating with, connecting to or displaying the content of the service, site or system.

7. Knowingly obtaining any information that is required by law to be kept confidential or any records that are not public records by accessing any computer, computer system or network that is operated by this state, a political subdivision of this state, a health care provider as defined in section 12-2291, a clinical laboratory as defined in section 36-451 or a person or entity that provides services on behalf of a health care provider or a clinical laboratory.

8. Knowingly accessing any computer, computer system or network or any computer software, program or data that is contained in a computer, computer system or network.