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Friday, March 10, 2006
Ind. Courts - Former Tippecanoe County court bailiff pleads guilty to theft
Joe Gerrety of the Lafayette Journal & Courier reports today:
A former Tippecanoe County court employee who was paid for more than 1,000 hours of overtime in 2003 has agreed to plead guilty to theft and pay the county $7,642 in restitution.For background, see this ILB entry from Oct. 12, 2005.If the plea agreement is approved by Judge Don Daniel of Tippecanoe Circuit Court, Kelly M. Davis would serve 11/2 years on probation and would not go to jail. If she were to successfully complete probation, her conviction would be entered as a misdemeanor.
Under the plea agreement, additional charges of theft, corrupt business influence and ghost employment would be dismissed.
Those are the terms of a plea agreement signed recently by Davis and special prosecutor Todd J. Meyer. The deal won't be official until after a change of plea hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
Meyer, the elected prosecutor in Boone County, was appointed to handle the case after Tippecanoe County prosecutor Jerry Bean cited a conflict of interest. * * *
Davis, 30, of rural West Lafayette, claimed 1,018 hours of overtime in 2003 as the full-time bailiff in Tippecanoe Superior Court 1. The overtime totaled more than $20,000 and augmented Davis' regular salary of $27,000 by 75 percent, according to a Journal and Courier review of payroll records at the time.
Superior Court 1 spent $56,533 on overtime and part-time help in 2003, compared with just $23,514 in Superior Court 2, which had a similar mix of cases and a smaller staff. Davis' counterpart in Superior Court 2 worked only 117.5 overtime hours in 2003 -- 12 percent of the overtime hours that Davis reported.
The overtime claims at the time put Judge Don Johnson at odds with members of the Tippecanoe County Council, who denied one of the judge's overtime claims late that year. That prompted a mandate from Johnson, who ordered the council to pay the claim.
Council members eventually approved the overtime claims, but sent Johnson a lengthy letter complaining about the court's reliance on overtime and part-time hours and urging the judge to give his personal attention to payroll claims. Davis resigned three weeks after the public controversy.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 10, 2006 10:06 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts