The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the federal court to issue an order that would prevent what the group fears is an attempt by state officials to get rid of Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility documents that would hurt the state's case in a pending lawsuit.

State lawyers, however, said their investigation shows that ACLU allegations are not correct and that documents have not been destroyed.

The request for the temporary restraining order was filed by ACLU's Hawai'i chapter yesterday in connection with the group's federal lawsuit alleging that three wards at the Kailua facility have been abused because they are gay or thought to be gay.

The ACLU is asking for a court order to halt the alleged harassment. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31 on that request.

In its request yesterday, the ACLU said it has learned that state officials have opened a "massive effort" to "review and dismantle" files maintained by the youth correctional facility and the Office of Youth Services, which operates the facility.

The ACLU said Sharon Agnew, executive director of the Office of Youth Services, has encouraged the staff to "sanitize" the wards' legal files.

At a meeting Oct. 4, Agnew told the staff that "bad documents," or documents supporting the wards' cases, have no place in the files, the ACLU said. As an example, Agnew referred to a document in one of the ward's files in which a staff member referred to the ward as "butchie," the ACLU said.

"Agnew further stated that only documents that demonstrated HYCF's 'progress' should be placed in the files," the ACLU said.

The ACLU said "plaintiffs believe that relevant documents have been or are in imminent danger of being destroyed, concealed, misplaced, mishandled or otherwise made inaccessible to discovery (the process that allows one side in a court case to gather information from the other)."

First Deputy Attorney General Lisa Ginoza said her office will oppose the ACLU's request. "We do not believe it has merit," she said.

"All of our investigation shows that the facts as alleged by the temporary restraining order and Ms. Agnew's conduct at the meeting were not correct," Ginoza said.

She said it may have been the result of a "misperception."

"In fact, from what we understand, Ms. Agnew was attempting to create a process in which incidents and information were properly documented," Ginoza said.

The ACLU has long been critical of the facility. In 2003, the group issued a scathing report alleging rape, brutality and crowding at the youth correctional facility.

The institution also is under investigation by U.S. Justice Department, which issued a report in August describing the facility as being in a "state of chaos."

No hearing date was set yesterday for the ACLU's request to preserve the documents.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.