PG&E's recordkeeping on trial.

• Position: COURT CASE - Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

A former Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) official hired after the San Bruno gas-pipeline explosion to clean up the company's records said management ordered her to destroy documents, according to a U.S. federal court filing.

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Prosecutors said the former employee, Leslie Banach McNiece, will testify during the trial on a dozen counts of pipeline safety violations and one count of obstructing the federal investigation into the September 2010 blast, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes when a pipe beneath San Bruno ruptured and exploded.

PG&E's recordkeeping deficiencies comprise much of the prosecution's case against the utility, set to go to trial in March in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.' Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office allege the company relied on records that executives knew were suspect to vouch to government regulators before 2010 that the San Bruno transmission pipe and other gas lines were safe, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Prosecutors will seek a fine of as much as $500 million against the firm. No current or former PG&E executives are facing charges, and company officials have denied criminal wrongdoing, according to the Mercury News.

In a January court filing, prosecutors said PG&E hired McNiece in April 2012 to clean up the firm's recordkeeping "mess." She was laid off in 2014. McNiece, who previously worked in records and information...