Driver resigns; audit starts Tuesday
By Mike Bowie
Evening Times Staff Writer
Jerry Driver has resigned as Crittenden County's Chief Juvenile Intake Officer, and an audit of his former office is scheduled to begin in the morning.
Circuit/Chancery Judge Ralph Wilson confirmed the resignation this morning, saying that he had received a letter from Driver asking that the resignation be made effective Friday, the same day the two were scheduled to meet to discuss office expenditures and recordkeeping.
Wilson suspended Driver Feb. 6 after meeting with Driver and County Judge Brian Williams and reviewing records of the juvenile office, including a checking account the office used.
"He (Driver) did not really give any reason for resigning. I got the letter over the weekend and I spoke this morning with Dorothy Barnes. She has agreed to stay as the head of the office until we can get a replacement," Wilson said.
He said that he had been trying to reach Williams this morning to tell him to go ahead and begin the application procedure for hiring a new chief intake officer.
Wilson had named Barnes to the position after suspending Driver. The judge had given Driver until Feb. 28 to produce invoices to back up purchases made through the checking account. At the time, a review of the available records by the Evening Times showed that approximately $18,000 in checks had been written to Driver.
Driver had also been directed to produce the remaining records for the checking account. Williams said no additional records had been turned in since the initial conference early last month.
Stubs for the checks showed that some had been written for computer equipment, some for trips, some for purchases at a gun shop and some showed no reason that the checks were written.
Wilson said also that Williams had asked that the state legislative audit staff begin their audit of the office in the morning.
"Today is the normal day for juvenile court and there would just be too much going on for the people to get anything done. I think Judge Williams used good judgement in asking that the audit begin tomorrow," Wilson said.
Williams said this morning that the first thing the audit staff would have to do is look at the records of the checking account the office has at the Citizens Bank.
"They will have to reconcile the account for October of 1993 through October of 1996. They will have to determine how much money went into the account and where it went. Since we don't have all the records, I am going to have to order the microfilm from the bank," Williams said.
He said another task the audit staff will face will be to try to find invoices for checks that have been written through the account. In some instances there are companies named on the check stubs, but in many others, there is no identifying company.
Scans:
home.comcast.net/~wm3file....97_01.jpg
home.comcast.net/~wm3file....97_02.jpg
