The Sheriff was suspended for a comment a Post reporter overheard him saying to a reporter from Columbus.
Suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly was held in contempt of court Friday morning and fined $500 for violating a gag order that prevented him from publicly commenting on his case.
Kelly told an NBC-4 Columbus reporter Thursday, “Are you starting to get the feeling that they don’t have a very good case?", according to a previous Post report.
Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove questioned both Kelly and the NBC reporter on the record after seeing The Post's report Friday morning, without the jury in the room.
Both men told her they could not remember the phrase being said.
Cosgrove proceeded to issue Kelly a $500 fine.
She added that further infractions would lead to incarceration.
Before Kelly was fined, Melissa Riley, an employee with Athens Medical Associates, was called to the stand just before 9:30 a.m.
Riley is a former sheriff's office employee, and left the office in January, 2014. She told the jury she had been responsible for filing applications for concealed carried permits, including conducting the background checks that were required to approve them.
Additionally, those applications carried a $67 fee Riley would collect and leave in an envelope labeled "CCW" on another employee's desk.
Riley was asked by prosecuting Attorney Melissa A. Schiffel whether she had ever felt concerned about a specific CCW application, and was shown applications for concealed carry permits obtained by Kelly's step-son's girlfriend.
The document had no signature or notation revealing whether the applicant had paid. Riley told the jury she didn't know whether the department had collected the application fee, and said Angela Waldron, a former records clerk, might have handled the request.
Waldron was the next to testify that morning. She told the jury she left the department for health reasons, and because she had heard Kelly was going to ask employees to destroy county documents.
While Wood was questioning Waldron, she testified that she "didn't hate (Kelly), but wasn't his biggest fan."
She told the jury she did not tell anyone about her concern that Kelly was destroying county documents because she was afraid of being fired. After she left office, she still did not report the concern.
Rodney Wright, a friend of Kelly's, also testified on a CCW permit he applied for with the sheriff's office.
Wright told the jury that women in the office hadn't asked him for a background check in the hour that he was there filing his application. He said he wasn't charged.
Scott Wood, Kelly's defense attorney, asked Wright during his cross-examination whether or not Kelly had been directly involved with his CCW permit.
Wright maintained that the ladies in the office had filed his paperwork, and that Kelly never instructed these women to neglect a background check or fee.
Sheriff's Office Capt. Bryan Cooper was called to the stand to testify on two concealed concealed carry applications issued by the sheriff's office, which he told the jury went without proper background check or payment.
Cooper said in his testimony that 55 CCW applications were approved by the sheriff's office without a $67 fee paid by the applicant. Of those, he said, up to 10 had some connection to Kelly.
Regarding allegations that Kelly improperly disposed of county records, Cooper testified he could recall one day where a dump truck pulled up beside the sheriff's office. He said county property was being taken and put into the truck, though nothing appeared suspicious.
Cooper told the jury he had every reason to trust Pat Kelly.
Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Special Agent Kevin Barbeau further testified on the concealed carried permits the sheriff's office had issued, and said he had investigated the issue with Special Agent Michael Trout.
When Barbeau and Trout reviewed applications dated from 2009 to 2012, Barbeau told the jury they found 26 applicants had invoices, while 29 did not.
BCI Special Agent Greg Burri was called to the stand next to testify on allegations that Kelly had sold county property to McKee Auto Parts & Recycling for scrap. Burri told the jury that investigators found scrapyard receipts indicating Kelly had received nearly $400 from scrapped deputy vehicles.
Kim Withem, executive assistant with Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn's office, was brought to the stand to next to testify on allegations that Kelly had destroyed county records without going through proper procedures.
Withem said that her and another prosecutor's office employee took inventory of the office's files, some of which were kept at the county garage, in March of 2013. At that time, Withem told the jury she observed about 50 boxes containing files from the prosecutor's office.
Withem testified that she did not take inventory of all of these boxes, but did inventory nine. In May of 2013, she heard files were being destroyed by the sheriff's office in the county garage on Lancaster Street. When she arrived to the building, she observed several sheriff's office employees taking apart files and throwing them into boxes.
Later that May, she was told records from the prosecutor's office that were kept at the county garage had been moved to the old Athens County Job and Family Services building. Withem went to the building and found the documents still missing, and told the jury those files still haven't been recovered.
"I panicked, I was worried about our files were and the ramifications of not being able to find those files," she said.
The trial will resume at 8:45 Monday morning, Judge Cosgrove said, unless if postponed for inclement weather.
William T. Perkins contributed to this report
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