Washington County Commissioners are reviewing actions by the county’s Prothonotary, Republican Laura Hough, regarding her use of a law enforcement data base. Democratic Commissioner Larry Maggi says the board was informed that a recent review of reports of usage by Hough, of the Lexis Nexis System, indicated improper access of the account by using her personal log in credentials to access information not required for the business of the Prothonotary’s Office. Maggi says the lexis Nexis System is a data base used by government and law enforcement agencies to gather information on individuals such as social security numbers, criminal backgrounds, etc. The county’s solicitor Jana Grimm also said that the review shows Hough accessed potentially confidential information of various prominent political figures, attorneys and private citizens for which the county believes she had no business reason to access. As a result of the review, Grimm informed Hough that her access to the Lexus Nexis System has been terminated pending completion of a review of the information that was potentially improperly accessed by her. Hough, who is in her first term as Prothonotary, is running for re-election and recently lost a challenge to have her Republican opponent in the upcoming May Primary, Kevin Hill, removed from the ballot. Hough emailed her response to the review to WJPA, saying: “In response to the last-minute hit piece put out by Larry Maggi and his Democrat allies, the accusation involving Lexis Nexis is much ado about nothing. It is clear that the Democrats are interfering in the upcoming Republican primary because they know that I am the only qualified candidate running for Prothonotary. Lexis Nexis is not a law enforcement software, but rather a search engine resource from a company dictated by the County. At the end of the day, it was a tool used for legitimate Prothonotary office activity.”