"John" says that this all started when JP Catherin Blankenship notice questionable spending at the sheriff's office and took it to the press instead of going to Sheriff Montgomery privately. John asks, " Is this fair that the Sheriff does not have a chance to give answers for any questions?" Does that make any sense to you? What could possibly be gained by keeping this out of the public's eye? Does John really think this would be fair to the public?
The sheriff had plenty of opportunities to answer these questions and answer them he did. I recall he told us he authorized his clerk Margie Teal to make his tuition payment for him when he was out of town only to later say he made the payment using the wrong credit card. But once the investigation was underway the story changed once again when, through his attorney Ralph Olm, Montgomery argued that he was entitled to further his personal education at the county's expense. An argument that, in part, led to a finding of insufficient probable cause and no criminal charges of theft but failed to convince Attorney Lane and CPA Little of the sheriff need to repay the county for these expenses.
In retrospect JP Blankenship's questions uncovered thousands of misspent tax dollars and in doing the job that she was elected to do it turned out be the best thing for the taxpayer. It helped put an end to an abuse of power that was costing us thousands of dollars a year. We don't know about you but we think that keeping something like this from the public amounts to the old good-ole-boy I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine cover-up that's been all to prevalent in politics these days.
Speaking of secrets "John's" letter casts more doubt on the circumstances surrounding former jail administrator Kyle Kelley's resignation. In a sudden and unexpected move Kelley quits shortly before he was suppose to talk with investigators. Now at the time we hear from Chief Deputy Wallace that Kelley quit for "personal reasons and was not forced by any means."
Wallace adds, "It was his choice. Who knows why people quit. It's just the best thing for them and their family. We think a lot of him. He's been an integral part of this team ever since '97. We're going to miss him for sure. He's been a big part of what we've done. We support him in whatever he does."
The investigators however found a credit card account that was close in March of 2004 issued to Kelley. Charges on this card showed purchases from Lake Liquor and Springhill Wine and Spirits along with numerous other obviously personal expenses. Sheriff Montgomery says he pulled Kelly's card from him in the fall of 2003 because of some problems. Investigators questioned Sheriff Marty Montgomery and Chief Deputy Wallace on May, 19th, 2005 and wrote the following:
Marty was then advised that we had located an old account closed 3-04 for Kyle Kelly. Marty stated that he had pulled Kyle's card from him in the fall of 2003 because of some problems. We then went over Kyle's charges item by item with Marty from the period of Jan 03 to Mar 04. Marty became visibly angry when charges to Lake Liquor and Springhill Wine and spirits and numerous other obviously personal expenditures were related.
Marty stated that he was unaware of any of this and suggested that this be turned over to HG Foster for criminal consideration. Marty was advised that the Legislative Audit had apparently not seen this information. Marty repeatedly questioned Steve on how this could have gotten by them in the review procedures. Steve stated that there are probably PO's with their initials approving payment.
"John" on the other hand tells a different story about the Kelley's resignation, he writes,
"I agree that in the past there was spending at the Sheriff's office that needed looked into and the Sheriff was doing so about the time all this started. The Sheriff disciplined the offender as he should have and things were back to normal. A short time later the offender, what the hell, Kyle Kelley, started spending money from the county jail budget on things questionable. Kyle was disciplined a second time and admonished for his actions. Well this did not last long and the Sheriff made the decision to terminate. Before the Sheriff could make contact with Kyle he turned in his letter of resignation."
Does any of that make sense to anyone? On the one hand Wallace gives Kelley a grand send off and on the other hand Kelley portrayed as the biggest offender in this credit card abuse.
We should note that we did a little investigation of our own and found out that Kelley was not reprimanded for any spending problems he had at the sheriff's office. According to Wallace there are no reprimands in Kelley's file for the years of 2003 thru 2005 when he resigned. Even when Montgomery took away his credit card, Kelley did not get wrote up. Why is that we wonder?
His file did contain a reprimand for 2001 when Montgomery told Kelley he was going to demote him for throwing temper tantrums, not working the required hours, and abusing sick leave and vacations policies. But when it came to the problems with his credit card that caused Montgomery to take it from him Kelley wasn't written up. Does that make any sense to you?
Now you maybe wondering about "John's" identity as we were, we were able to find out that "John" works at either the courthouse or at the sheriff's office because in his email header information it shows it was mailed from their IP address. Now "John" made the mistake of sending his letter out to all his buddies at the Sheriff's office and including us in his mailing. As a result we can tell you exactly who this message was written for. Here's the list of email addresses:
From: John Travolta
To: rachel.parker@thecabin.net
Cc: ahendrix@tcworks.net ; ashock@tcworks.net ; bcmccoyjr@tcworks.net ; coollov72@yahoo.com ; dhaleshelton@arkansasonline.com ; fcsobb@tcworks.net ; fcvu@fcso.info ; fnokes@tcworks.net ; jackpikefcso@hotmail.com ; jb_dapitbull@yahoo.com ; jrandall@tcworks.net ; mattr@tcworks.net ; mjmickels@yahoo.com ; mmontgomery@conwaycorp.net ; perrywyse@yahoo.com ; rainwater@duncanrainwater.com ; rodpearson57@yahoo.com ; rweaver@c21dh.com ; scott35ar@yahoo.com ; shuseas@conwaycorp.net ; tammyfcso@yahoo.com
Looks like the whole crew is represented in this list with the curious omission of Chief Deputy Wallace. I wonder what that could mean?
The more we look at this the more we wonder why charges were not brought against these individuals. Are the laws in this state so poor as to allow this blatant abuse of tax dollars and no one is prosecuted? It just doesn't make sense to us, does it make sense to you . . .
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