Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly, who the state of Ohio says meant to “achieve unlawful goals,” as an elected official, is scheduled to be arraigned in the Athens County Common Pleas Court Monday.
A court filing by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine states that Kelly, who was indicted on 25 counts Jan. 31, used the Athens County Sheriff’s office “as a means to enrich himself personally,” throughout his entire time in office.
The court motion by DeWine, which was filed Tuesday in the Ohio Supreme Court to request proceedings begin to possibly suspend Kelly, lays out large portions of the state’s findings following a probe into Kelly’s office that lasted more than one year. The 78-page document, which includes evidence as well as background on the case, shined a light on an investigation that was largely veiled in secrecy.
The Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, a branch of DeWine’s office, interviewed more than 50 people who were believed to have knowledge about Kelly’s conduct in office. The state believes Kelly went so far as to engage in illegal activity in attempt to cover up his alleged wrongdoing.
The filing was based largely on a 55-point affidavit signed by Benjamin Suver, special agent supervisor for the bureau.
The sheriff has previously told The Post he plans to plead not guilty Monday to all counts.
MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS
Some of the charges against Kelly related to mismanaging money include money laundering and theft in office.
According to an audit by Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost’s office, the sheriff’s office “illegally” used $14,392 from a checking account. The audit also found Kelly spent $813 from another account for “personal and unallowable use.”
Documents from DeWine’s office also state that the sheriff did not deposit all of the money meant for his office into the office funds. For example, Kelly is accused of “incrementally” taking $4,000 from his office’s cashbox through several withdrawals over a period of more than one year.
Only Kelly and his clerical assistant had access to the cashbox, the documents state, and “as a result of his own orders, he was exclusively responsible for keeping track of the accounting.”
The money remains unaccounted for, according to documents.
Kelly is also accused of knowingly using public funds for personal or unallowable reasons, such as paying for meals and clothing.
As an example, the state pointed to the time Kelly spent $54 in public money at Ponderosa, a meal he said was for employees after a parade March 27, 2011, but the state found there was no parade in Athens County on that day.
He is also accused of stealing copper wire from the county garage.
SELLING COUNTY PROPERTY
The documents state that Kelly is accused of selling county property to a scrapyard, including a bread truck, a Chevy Astro Van and copper wire, though the documents do not specify whether it is the same copper wire Kelly is accused of stealing.
Peggy McKee, owner of the scrapyard, said in an interview with investigators that Kelly was paid $2,856 in cash over seven transactions and $470 in an eighth transaction, for which he sold county property extracted from the Athens County Fairgrounds Garage.
ABUSE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS
Kelly is also accused of using money from campaign donors for his “Kelly for Sheriff” and “Re-elect Sheriff Kelly” campaigns for personal reasons.
Clinton Stanley, Kelly’s former campaign manager during both the 2008 and 2012 elections, was also interviewed by the bureau. Stanley said he believes Kelly received more than $2,500 in donations to the campaign and deposited it into his personal funds instead, seeing as the Ohio University Credit Union has no records of the money being deposited into the campaign fund.
In one example, Stanley said he was instructed to deposit a $500 campaign donation into his personal bank account, and then write Kelly a check. Kelly was present when Stanley was making out the check.
The affidavit states: Stanley said he “started to write ‘Re-Elect ...’ in the ‘pay to the order of’ line, when Patrick Kelly stopped Stanley and instructed him to make the check out to “Pat Kelly.”
The claim was backed up by evidence.
Exhibit 18 in the case is a check signed by Stanley’s wife (the couple have a joint bank account) to “Pat Kelly,” not to the re-election campaign’s OU Credit Union account. The check has a scratch out before Kelly’s name.
REPORTED ASSAULT
The investigation began after Kelly was accused in September 2012 of assaulting a man. The man alerted Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn, who asked DeWine’s office to take on the case. From there, it snowballed into a larger-than-expected state investigation.
“Once we got into the case, it was evident there was a lot more there,” DeWine previously said at a press conference in Athens.
Although DeWine’s examination began with the alleged assault, Kelly does not currently face any charges for that incident, and DeWine said it is unclear if any would be added later.
Despite the accusations, Kelly, 63, said he refuses to step down.
“I’m sure Mike DeWine will try and find me guilty,” he said in a previous Post article.
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This article appeared in print under the headline "New details surface in Kelly case"
