Even with allegations of wrongdoing that would leave him with some explaining to do, Sheriff Pat Kelly said this sum mer is unlike any other.
“That’s just typical Athens County politics at its worst for you,” Kelly said of allegations swirling in news reports from local officials and residents re garding Kelly assaulting a man, mismanaging money and il legally dumping government documents.
At the beginning of the sum mer, Kelly was called to testify in front of a grand jury organized by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office, and he was investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
“I’ve said it many times, we haven’t done anything wrong, and we’re going on about our business as usual,” Kelly said.
Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn reported gov ernment files as missing be tween May 13 and 15.
“We may find that the miss ing prosecutor’s files may have been inadvertently deposited at the landfill at the time his office dumped records,” Kelly said in a Facebook post. “The sheriff’s office records are intact and any files that have been destroyed have been microfilmed and or scanned and there is a copy of these files. The files taken to the landfill by my office have all been microfilmed and are ac counted for.”
The case has been under investigation for about two months.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for DeWine’s office, said the case involving Kelly is still under in vestigation, but they aren’t per mitted to comment on ongoing cases.
“The Attorney General’s office received a request from Keller Blackburn to investigate an as sault claim involving Sheriff Pat Kelly,” Tierney said.
Tierney said that when the Attorney General’s office inves tigates someone, it also investi gates other claims made against the person. Allegations involv ing mismanaging money and illegally dumping government documents could also be a part of the investigation.
“This silliness had been go ing on for over a year now,” Kelly said of accusations against his office. “I didn’t lose Keller Black burn’s records, I didn’t assault that man during my campaign, and the audit is total ridiculous ness.”
Kelly was referring to a state audit report released July 16 that showed Kelly and two employ ees improperly spent a total of $5,738 last year on polo shirts, parties and meals.
The state said $5,225 in ex penditures should have been out of his furtherance of justice account, which sheriffs typically can use to their discretion.
In another claim on the audit, Kelly and two employees ille gally spent $512 on parties from a fund that was only supposed to be used for law enforcement efforts related to drugs. Kelly, in response to that claim, said new accounting practices will stop that from happening in the fu ture.
“There is no money miss ing, it’s just a matter of moving money from one account to the other,” Kelly said. “The money is all accounted for, but that was never a question.”
