Motorola and fired exec go toe-to-toe

A wiped-down computer is part of the counter-charges between Motorola Corp. and a fired chief financial officer, court documents in Chicago show.

Motorola fired CFO Paul Liska Jan. 29. The next day, someone ran a file-swiping program over the company laptop assigned to Liska , a computer forensic expert hired by Motorola, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

Liska sued Motorola in a retaliatory discharge lawsuit. Motorola then filed a motion claiming Liska stole or destroyed important evidence. The motion filed demands Liska turn over a variety of documents.

Liska, in turn, has accused the company of conducting a smear campaign against him and tampering with an e-mail. He said he cleared the company laptop of his private documents before handing it back to the company.

This ill-advised stunt is part of a developing “¦ effort by Motorola to smear Mr. Liska’s reputation at all costs, a counter-motion said.

Motorola spokesman Rusty Brashear said the company did not tamper with the e-mail.

The question is what could have been on that computer that was either so embarrassing or frightening to him … that before going to sleep that night, he removed it from his computer, Brashear said.