Former Elliott County Clerk Shelia Blevins and her sister, former Elliott County Deputy Clerk Jeannie Moore, were formally sentenced Friday in Franklin Circuit Court to complicity to commit abuse of public trust under $10,000.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd gave the pair five years of probation each and entered them into a felony diversion program.
The cases were investigated by the Department of Criminal Investigations within the Office of the Attorney General in connection with misuse of public funds in 2014. Beshear’s Office of Special Prosecutions prosecuted the case.
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The Attorney General’s office began investigating the clerk’s office during the 2014 annual audit of the clerk’s fee account by the state auditor. Once the audit was complete, it was referred to the AG’s office for a finding involving four missing daily deposits totaling $15,680 from the fee account.
Beshear’s office took the case to a Franklin County grand jury based on its investigation that uncovered that $8,990 of the $15,680 daily deposits was missing funds. The remaining amount reported missing in the four daily deposits was the result of a deposit error, not missing fund. A Franklin County Grand Jury indicted Blevins and Moore June 9 with complicity to commit abuse of public trust under $10,000 in connection.
Blevins and Moore have repaid the $8,990 to Elliott County.
As part of their sentencing, Blevins and Moore were ordered to resign from office and issue apologies and admissions of guilt. They issued written apologies Aug. 10 to the Elliott County Fiscal Court.
