The Board of Selectmen announced Tuesday, after an executive session, that the Plymouth County District Attorney's office will return the 84 disks it took following the town's computer audit last May.

A letter was received Jan. 13 indicating that the disks would be returned, Board of Selectmen Chairman Bruce Sauvageau said. The letter also said that 15 of the disks would go directly to interim Police Chief Richard Stanley, as they contain confidential police-related material.

"They've closed their grand jury investigation with no finding with respect to the Board of Selectmen," Sauvageau said.

The disks in question are the result of an unannounced audit of town computers conducted by a private computer consulting firm in May at the request of Selectmen. There has been much speculation about what Selectmen and interim Town Administrator John Sanguinet were seeking to learn from the audit. Official statements broadly refer only to a need to find out about inappropriate and unauthorized use of town computers.

In the wake of outrage expressed by some town employees and citizens, the district attorney's office seized the disks from the consulting group hired by the town to conduct the audit. Despite speculation as rampant as that surrounding the original audit, the DA's office never disclosed its reason for seizing the disks other than its broad intent to investigate possible criminal wrong-doing.

The DA's office will make copies of all the disks, Sauvageau said. It has only reviewed the police department data thus far.

"They have referred the matter concerning the investigation to both the Inspector General's office and the ethics department for further investigation," Sauvageau said.

Sauvageau said the board will work with the town counsel and town administration to decide how to proceed once the disks are received.