Amazingly, four separate people have been arrested, each separately charged with embezzling from Albemarle County. Two former employees of the school system, one school custodian, and one former finance employee have been charged with a total of $25,000 in theft between them, Reed Williams writes in today’s Progress.
One, a former Murray Elementary cafeteria manager, stole over $5,000 in parentally-established lunch money accounts. Another, who worked in the media center offices, falsified mileage reports and stole a fax machine for a total of $12,000. Another — the custodian — took three 27″ TVs, two Macs, two drills and two power saws, which he pawned, adding up to $5,319. The fourth, the finance employee, embezzled $2,500 between September ’04 and January by taking cash payments filed for building permits.
The four cases are described as county officials as both unrelated to each other and very unusual. The fact that they were all caught seems to indicate that somebody in the county accounting department is doing their job.
“The fact that they were all caught seems to indicate that somebody in the county account department is doing their job. ”
Agreed. Let us hope this is a result of audit procedures which have been in place for a long period and not a newly instituted procedure which might indicate previous incidents went undetected. Good for the auditor or whoever.
So much for presumption of innocence. So much for the accuser assumed to lying until a court verdict has been rendered based on presentation of evidence and cross-examination.
What about this story a couple days ago–
STANARDSVILLE – Greene County’s planning director, Catherine Clossin, was dismissed from her job this week – a move she says is retribution for investigating possible zoning violations by the county administrator.
“I think this is retaliation,” she said Friday, a day after her termination. “To tell you the truth, I kind of expected it. I just didn’t know when.”
[…]
But the former planning director said a letter from county officials to her stated the following reasons: insubordination, violation of department rules and policies, inability to follow directions and perform work properly and a lack of willingness to work with others.
Clossin said that during an hour-long conversation this week, Morris did not give her specific incidents when she behaved insubordinately or did not comply with county policy.
“They didn’t have a real reason,” she said.
Co-workers and others were surprised to hear about Clossin’s dismissal….
(“Dismissed planner alleges retribution” by Kate Andrews, April 2 2005, http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031781925587&path=!news )
Just because a government official accuses a subordinate employee of wrondoing don’t necessarily make it so.