Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly has been under a lot of scrutiny the past few weeks, but in a recent email to local news reporters he said that he would not be stepping down.
"I am eligible to retire and could do so, but why would I? For what reason?" Kelly wrote in an email dated June 21.
Kelly, after being re-elected in November amid allegations of assault, misuse of public funds and intimidation, is no stranger to controversy. And now that he has testified in front of a grand jury after accusations of missing records at the county engineer's office, the sheriff’s home and office were later searched by the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
Read more about the grand jury here.
In the email to reporters, Kelly criticized the media for using anonymous sources in news reports. He suggested that outlets “expose” the sources so the public knows who is behind — what he calls — “leaks of information.”
Kelly could not be reached for comment in the days after he sent the email.
az346610@ohiou.edu
