Council, chief deputy spar over sheriff’s misappropriations
A Dubois County resident’s questions into Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter’s misappropriation of commissary funds led to a sparring match between members of the Dubois County Council and Dubois County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy at Wednesday’s meeting.
Here is a recording of Wednesday’s meeting. This was provided by the county since the stream did not have audio for the first half of the meeting.
Resident Alice Garland told the council that the results of the special investigation into the sheriff’s misuse of the commissary funds reflected negatively on the sheriff’s department, the county, and other law enforcement agencies in the county.
Mrs. Garland asked how the council missed the misuse of funds if the commissary ledgers were reviewed annually. “Would this have ever been brought to light without the (state) audit,” she asked.
Council President Mike Kluesner responded that the ledger records aren’t clear on the exact expenses. “He can say this money is going for training; that is a legitimate expense,” he said. “When we ask him what an expense was, he would say, ‘That is for training.'”
“If you say training, I don’t know who he’s sending, if he sends four deputies or he sends his wife,” Kluesner added.
Kluesner also explained those expenditures do not go through the county auditor’s office at all.
“That is his account, and he is supposed to be trustworthy enough to spend it properly,” he said.
Councilman Ryan Craig told Mrs. Garland that under state law, the sheriff can spend the commissary funds on eight items at his discretion. Everything else is supposed to be brought to the council for approval. (We covered this ordinance in the article linked at the end of this story.)
She asked again how the entries didn’t raise any red flags for the council.
Kluesner said they noticed items and asked about them. “We did question some of these items, but we were told it was training,” he said.
He added that the county council is not an auditing board. “If you are going to misrepresent yourself, then the audit is going to catch you,” Kluesner added.
However, the county council is charged with overseeing the ledger as pointed out by the State Board of Accounts.
Kluesner pointed to the Clark County case involving the misappropriation of commissary funds by former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel as a catalyst for the state board of accounts’ push to examine commissary expenditures throughout the state more closely.
That Sheriff Kleinhelter paid for his wife to attend four training conferences, including one in Dubai for $7,375.92 on May 16, 2023, were highlighted as misappropriations in the state report.
Mrs. Garland questioned whether the sheriff could deputize his wife to sidestep the requirement to come to the council for approval for those travel expenses.
Chief Deputy Jesus Monarrez told her that the sheriff can deputize anyone he sees fit.
Councilman Daryl Schmitt asked Monarrez if he felt it was ethical for the sheriff to deputize his wife to allow her to go on trips.
Monarrez responded that a sheriff’s spouse provides support, and they can receive training to help them in that role.
In response to criticism of the Dubai trip, Councilman Alex Hohl said he had no problem with the sheriff going to Dubai for training from international law enforcement agencies. He pointed to the diversity of nationalities represented in the county. He asked, “Do you think our chief law enforcement officer should be able to network with these world-type leaders to learn different risks and things that go on, or should we stay in a hole and not learn of some of these things that could affect us?”
In an interview on Tuesday, July 30, the day the special audit report was made public, the sheriff told us the council had given him a verbal okay to use the commissary funds as they had been used historically at the department. Monarrez reiterated this point while speaking with the council on Wednesday.
“If I recall back in 2021 or 2020, he came and spoke about a resolution. At that point, I believe he was told, continue to use the commissary fund as you see fit,” Monarrez said.
Kluesner told Monarez that was incorrect. “He said he was pulling it off the table, we never even voted on it,” he said.
According to the January 2020 Dubois County Council meeting minutes, Kleinhelter brought a commissary resolution to the council. The council held over any decision on the resolution until the next meeting. The minutes for the next meeting noted the county auditor reporting Kleinhelter had withdrawn the resolution.
The state audit also found that the sheriff had misused $7,921.76 in commissary money by purchasing four $100 Visa prepaid gift cards and 50 Blackstone 22-inch flat-top grills last November as gifts for the sheriff’s office employees.
Monarrez told the council and Mrs. Garland that recruiting and retaining officers was difficult, and the gifts helped show appreciation for the department’s employees.
According to the state board of accounts, the sheriff could have asked the council for permission to use the money for those gifts and travel expenses. If he had received approval, those expenses would not have been considered a misappropriation.
“Nothing was ever done maliciously, nothing was done to deprive taxpayers of money,” Monarrez said. “Everything was done in good heart.”
To Monarrez’s assertion that it isn’t taxpayer money, Councilwoman Meredith Voegerl said to the contrary, the state board of accounts considered that commissary money to be taxpayer money.
Monarrez pushed back, saying that the commissary fund is solely funded by the sale of items to the inmates.
Councilman Craig joined Voegerl and explained that while the sheriff was misusing these funds, he asked the council to use taxpayer money to cover other expenses in the sheriff’s office that the commissary funds could cover.
“The problem we have is you come in here and ask for $16,000 for radios out of taxpayer money when you spent $16,000 for a trip to Dubai,” Craig said. “That’s where I have a problem. It does affect the taxpayer. We then have to pull the money from our funds because he spent the money on these airplane tickets to go around the world.”
He added that even CEOs don’t fly first class because they must answer to shareholders, and “therefore we answer to our taxpayers as our sheriff should,” he said. “I don’t understand how you can defend this. You screwed up. Move on. It was not morally right.”
Monarrez then stated he couldn’t legally talk about the Dubai trip anymore.
Kluesner added that the council disagreed with Monarrez’s assessment of the misappropriation before ending the discussion.
Craig clarified in a follow-up interview that the amount he quoted in the meeting was based on the assumption that the sheriff and his wife had flown first class for the total amount spent out of the commissary fund. The sheriff’s ticket was not named in the state board of accounts investigation as part of the misappropriated funds since he had the discretion to pay for his ticket.
Mrs. Garland asked who could remove the sheriff from office, to which Kluesner told her the council does not have that power since the sheriff is an elected official.
In Indiana, a sheriff can be removed from office for several reasons, including being drunk on duty, neglecting their duties or being convicted of a felony.
The state board of accounts investigation into Kleinhelter’s misappropriation has been turned over to Indiana State Police Special Investigations.
After receiving the result of the special investigation from the State Board of Accounts, Dubois County Prosecuting Attorney Beth Schroeder requested a special prosecutor, and the Dubois County Superior Court appointed Orange County Prosecuting Attorney Holly Hudelson. Hudelson accepted the appointment as special prosecutor in the case and is waiting for the results of the Indiana State Police investigation to be completed and turned over to her before taking any action
Here is our original story.
