Friction apparent between Craven commissioners and sheriff

RIVER BEND – Ongoing wrinkles in the relationship between some Craven County commissioners and the Craven County sheriff resurfaced at Monday night’s meeting and were magnified by a shortage in the inmate concessions account.

Meeting in River Bend as part of Craven County’s 300th anniversary effort to take government to the people, Commissioner Scott Dacey brought to the board’s attention the shortage of between $9,000 and $10,000 in the account jail inmates deposit for purchases from the jail commissary.

Commissioner Jeff Taylor highlighted problems in getting from the sheriff requested information on deputy high-speed pursuit training, vehicle use policy, and minority hiring that resulted in another canceled discussion between the sheriff and commissioners last Thursday.

Taylor said that during his just over 13 months in office, “We have had a total of seven vehicles wrecked plus damage to two civilian vehicles and a fence line.”

One of the wrecks killed a Bridgeton woman “and recently, we had an accident where the call to the dispatchers did not match up with the official report filed by the sheriff’s investigator or from the sheriff himself. How can a story go from striking a deer to equipment malfunction?”

Craven County Sheriff Jerry Monette said in a Sun Journal telephone interview Tuesday that he thinks politics motivated the talk at the meeting.

“The citizens of this county elected me to run the Sheriff’s Office and that’s what I’m going to do, just like I think it needs to be done,” Monette said. “This is a new board and I am trying to cooperate. But there may come a time when that isn’t the case if this continues. I don’t want to get into a contest.”

“We’re the ones who reported the shortage to the county,” Monette said. “And they are the ones who cancelled the meeting.”

Craven County Assistant Manager Gene Hodges verified Tuesday that “Commissioners canceled the meeting.” He said their reason was because they did not have the requested information to review prior to sitting down for talks.

Dacey said the “inconsistency in the Sheriff’s Office and Jail account” of money deposited by inmates dates back to several months was brought to the county’s attention about 10 days ago when “the account went negative.”

He asked Assistant County Manager Rick Hemphill for options to fix the problem and to account for the missing $10,000. “Somebody has absconded with the money,” Dacey said.

Hemphill said options include depositing money from the county general fund, using money from the line item for seized property in the sheriff’s budget, or using revenue from the commissary fund.

Regarding accountability, Hemphill said, “The Sheriff has an investigation ongoing and is talking with the district attorney.”

Monette said, “In a nutshell, we have discovered a shortage in inmate welfare line item account. We immediately reported it and began an internal investigation.”

“We changed software in July 2011 and I really didn’t know anything was wrong until it went short,” he said. “Our finance folks in the jail were notified by the banking institution that handles the account. It prompted a review of the books and … we asked the county finance manager to come in and help us with the problem.”

He said 25 to 30 people handle the money deposited and withdrawn by about 500 inmates a month. “The inmate comes in, deposits money to his account and is able to buy supplies from the canteen from the account. When he leaves, what’s left is turned over to him in the form of a check or debit card.”

Monette said it is “too early to tell” what actually happened to the missing $9,100. “I saw in Cumberland County where they had a problem of inmates forging routing numbers. I don’t think that’s the case here. We don’t know yet. If we determine there is criminal activity related to the account, certainly we’ll report that to the DA and get an outside agency to investigate.”

Regarding the meeting canceled because no new information was submitted for commissioner review, Monette said he really had nothing new to report on some of the commissioners’ concerns. Regarding pursuit driving training and minority hiring, “the policy we have in effect was made available in October or November. I reviewed the policy. They’re asking for things already in the policy they haven’t reviewed.”

He said it takes awhile to set up the training “and we can only send two deputies every 90 days.”

As for the accidents, Monette asked, “Did he say how many were our fault? Three of the seven may be driver error at fault by a sheriff deputy. We have had several wrecks where people have hit our vehicles. It’s something that happens when you get out in traffic and drive a lot of miles.

“There is a whole lot of wolfing going on,” Monette said. “I want to sit down in a manageable way so we can give our point of view. I want to come in with an open mind with this new board and try to alleviate their concerns but I’m not sure that’s what’s going on or that I’m going to be able to do that.”

Taylor closed his Monday remarks by saying, “For those who thought that if ignored long enough, the commissioners will just get tired and move on to other issues, I will advise you that as long as we do not receive the requested information, we will continue to voice our concerns and will lead to some interesting sessions when it becomes budget time.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sbook@freedomenc.com.