But after reading the 1,350 page investigative report into the credit card scandal Mr. Flanigan now believes the Quorum Court did the right thing. He is now wondering how special prosecutor Stephen Tabor could not find evidence that rises to the level of probable cause. In a new letter Flanigan writes,
I was wrong in my letter when I said that the sheriff's office does not have to be micro-managed. After reading the report, one can only conclude that we need all new management and spending controls. I only got through about 450 pages of the report but that was more than enough. Why Stephen Tabor, the Special Prosecutor from Fort Smith, was unable to determine if criminal charges should be brought is completely unbelievable. Mr. Tabor states that, "While there is ample evidence to arouse suspicion, I do not feel the evidence rises to the level of probable cause."
If you are a taxpayer of Faulkner County and if you read the report I did, I would be willing to say that not only would you be suspicious, you would be outraged. You would also be able to find probable cause and you would want our local prosecutor to go after the people listed in this report.
In the first 40 or so pages of the report I added up over $22,000 in charges, some so blatant and poorly explained that you just know the taxpayers were being taken to the cleaners. The report also gives the names of the people whose credit card was used. What is scary is that this 1,350 page report is only for the year 2004. By far the biggest reasons given were either that the person did not know the charges were made to their credit card or they gave the credit card to someone else and they did not know what was charged.
Just how many taxpayers do not know what is charged to their card unless it is a case of theft? Or would you hand your credit card to someone to use; see they have run up a bill; not even ask what they charged; and then forget that you even gave the card to anyone? These poor excuses are what the prosecutor says is not probable cause - I don't know, or I forgot.
This report is a true embarrassment to the sheriff's department. It does not need to get filed away by our local authorities and swept under the table; it needs to be investigated. I can understand now why we have so few deputies actually patrolling the county and risking their lives for us. If the sheriff's department had actual spending controls in place, we would have more money to put more deputies on the street that could arrest some people. The taxpayers of Faulkner County deserve better.
Recently I took a business trip to NW Arkansas to install a computer and networking system at our warehouse. My boss gave me his personal credit card with his name on it for gas expenses. I used this card without any questions from gas station attendants.
While there I needed to get a couple of cables and other various items to complete the installation so I called the home office and asked to use the card to purchase these items, I also asked to use it for lunch. Again I was able to use the card without too much trouble, the guy at the local Radio Shack was looking intently at the back of the card while I signed the slip. I told I wasn’t the person who was issued the card but I was his employee. After looking at my driver’s license he completed the transaction.
Now I should note that I signed my name to each credit card slip, as I was the authorized agent of the card holder making the transaction. Now these transactions were perfectly fine because I got the permission of the entity responsible for paying the card before the purchases were made. In the many incidents in question at the sheriff’s office however, the people responsible for repaying the charges, you and me, the taxpayer, did not authorize these "agents" to use those card for the personal items that were purchased.
This unauthorized use the very definition of theft and for Stephen Tabor, who is incidentally up for re-election, not to find efficient probable cause is inexcusable. I’d say that is where the politics lie in this case.
Lack of officers to patrol the county, the lay-off of part time deputies for political reasons, the non-enforcement of laws, the lack of charges in the credit card scandal, and the lawsuits of neglected inmate care have blackened the image of the sheriff’s office, yet the sheriff and his staff remain employed. Sheriff Montgomery is either leading a charmed life or he "knows where all the bodies are buried."
{Editor's note: The above quotes were taken from letters published at the Log Cabin Democrat. Please visit the link to the entire letters as written by Mr. Flanigan}
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