Tuesday, March 1st 2016, 6:05 pm
A second audit of the Tulsa County Jail confirms a couple hundred thousand dollars is missing from the Inmate Trust Account.
The state auditor’s office report also revealed the jail paid an employee for 11 months after he left the job.
The sheriff’s office said they aren’t surprised by the audit's findings. The office said they first discovered the missing inmate money in 2012 and have been exhausting every avenue to find it.
They believe criminal activity was involved.
2/25/2016 Related Story: Audit Finds 'System-Wide Failure' In Tulsa County Sheriff's Office
The new audit into the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office shows missing funds and poor record keeping. One of the biggest discrepancies is the nearly $189,000 missing from the Inmate Trust Fund.
“This was no surprise to us,” said Deputy Justin Green. “This was a situation we have been trying to rectify for the last four years."
He said the sheriff's office conducted their own investigation - as did the county and even an external CPA - but none of those agencies found the funds.
Right now, a forensic audit is underway, which Green hopes will finally give the department a solid answer to what happened to the money, which could lead to criminal charges.
"The person who was over those accounts is no longer with us,” Green said. “Our hope is once this forensic audit is done, we will have the proof that we need to continue forward with charges if that is the case."
The audit also shows former detention officer Joshua Crall stayed on the payroll for 11 months after he resigned in February 2014, receiving more than $36,000.
Green said, “We have two separate systems. The sheriff's office has one system for time keeping and the county has a separate system for payroll. So the employee was removed from the timekeeping system but not the payroll system."
Crall was arrested for a felony and ordered to pay back the money.
The county blames the sheriff's office saying they can't take someone off the payroll without an action sheet from the department.
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