The grand jury's indictment of Clerk Christopher Anderson and his chief deputy, Carol Smith, might have sounded familiar if you've been around Elkhart awhile.
The pair face felony charges for allegedly condoning a practice of paying supervisors for 80 hours when they only worked 72, reportedly because supervisors do more work.
The sheriff’s department investigated the case and has its own recent history around such charges.
In another case in 2019, Prosecutor Vicki Becker’s office filed felony theft charges against three process servers at the sheriff department –- Susan Graves, Mary Letherman and Steven Mock. They were accused of collecting pay for hours they didn’t work between 2014 and 2017. As with Anderson and Smith, Becker included the lesser charge of misdemeanor conversion. The three pleaded guilty to that and received one-year suspended jail terms.
In that case, Capt. Jim Bradberry Sr. also pleaded guilty to false informing. He quit but Sheriff Jeff Siegel Thursday confirmed he has hired Bradberry back after Judge David Bonfiglio agreed to expunge his conviction earlier this year.
Siegel says Bradberry is working courthouse security as a civilian, not a sworn officer. Siegel says he believes in restorative justice for inmates generally and he didn’t see Bradberry’s case as any different.
”Jim had been sentenced by the court, he served his sentence, his records were expunged," Siegel says. "My command staff, all six of us, agreed to give Jim Bradberry a second chance and that’s how he came to be employed again.”
In yet another case, Becker’s office in 2021 charged sheriff deputies Donald McQuarie and William Fackelman with felony ghost employment. They were accused of being paid to work security at a bank while also being paid by the department. A jury in October found McQuarie not guilty. Fackelman’s trial is set to begin next month.
