Local Legislators Want to Look Into Sheriff’s Activities Across the State

State Representative Mark Genda speaks to the crowd at the Legislative Breakfast. To his right are State Representative Heath VanNatter and State Senator Brian Buchanan.

The saga of Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly and his wife Ashley’s handling of commissary funds just won’t go away.

At Saturday morning’s final Legislative Breakfast, State Representative Mark Genda said he and State Senator Brian Buchanan are going to be part of a group that looks into alleged mishandling in sheriff’s offices across the state.

“I said we need to look at the sheriff’s office and look into particular items that need to be addressed in all 92 counties across the state of Indiana,” said Genda.

Genda added this includes the Sheriff’s Association and those talks about tightening up some of the things going on with the sheriff’s offices. He added this should be done in an open forum like all other funds are done.

“This happened in my district, the people I represent,” said Genda. “That means we need to take a look at this so it doesn’t happen across the board. We need to look at funds not being managed.”

At the end of last month, the Office of Attorney General Todd Rokita announced he is seeking recovery of nearly $330,000 in taxpayer money which the Kelly’s are charged with misappropriating. Sheriff Kelly is charged with making $219,634.65 in unauthorized payments to he and his wife’s LLC. The complaint follows a state special investigation into the books and records of the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, Jail Commissary and their issued Audit Report.

They have also been charged criminally with Official Misconduct and Conflict of Interest, which they deny, and are accused with violating county nepotism policies.

In other news, Clinton County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shan Sheridan indicated they could be more of these type of events, but in a different part of the year.

“We’re looking somewhere maybe in August, September opportunity right before school starts or maybe right after school starts,” said Sheridan. “It could be closer to late summer or early fall. It would be a session where we would have a working session with the public. Then, we would have our legislators come back and discuss some ideas.”

Sheridan also said he thinks it would very beneficial for Frankfort and Clinton County.

“I believe we do represent a lot of rural communities in the state of Indiana basically from agribusiness to manufacturing,” Sheridan said. “We have four school districts. For an area our size to have four school districts, that’s a lot for the population we have.”

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