On May 21, special agents from the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor (OSA) delivered civil demands to several current and former officials in the Town of Pelahatchie. Drug seizure funds, which are required to be used for law enforcement purposes, were misspent by the Town. Two demands were issued for a total $502,363.07, which includes interest and investigative costs. Current and former officials and the bonding company that insures them have 30 days to pay. If not, Pickering said he will sue them in civil court.
Mississippi law requires the transfer of all funds received through the forfeiture proceedings under the Uniform Controlled Substance Law into the budget of the corresponding law enforcement agency. A review of Pelahatchie’s Forfeiture Account shows this transfer did not occur. After an OSA investigation, several illegal transfers were discovered. Some of the illegal transfers relate to:
• Transfers to the Town’s Enterprise Account (Utility Account)
• Transfers to the Town’s Special Fire Fund
• Transfers made to prevent overdraft in the regular Town checking account
Transfers to pay salaries of non-police department employees
• Transfers to pay for items not associated with the Pelahatchie Police Department in any way
In Mississippi, asset forfeiture has a dual purpose of discouraging drug trafficking and providing a direct benefit to law enforcement agencies across the State. The goal of asset forfeiture is to provide police departments with additional funds to spend on equipment, additional training, officer overtime payment, and salary to hire new officers. The intent is to provide citizens with a better equipped and more qualified police department.
Mayor Ryshonda Beechem released a response to the Auditor’s demands on May 22, stating “When the Board and city clerks continued to request the mayor to sign checks of this nature, she contacted the State Auditor for clarification on the issues. She was instructed to contact investigations at that point. The mayor complied with all requests made of her by the State Auditor’s office relative to the investigation.”
The first demand, totaling $421,688.10, represents the period of January 2015 to June 2017. It was issued to: former mayor, Knox Ross, Jr.; former alderman, Jerry Norwood; former alderwoman, Megan Hall; former city clerk, Bettye Massey; current alderman, Frank Boyd; current alderman, Michael Adams; and current alderwoman, Margie Warren. All recipients of this demand are jointly responsible for its repayment.
The second demand, totaling $80,694.97, represents the period from July 2017 to December 2017. It was issued to: Bettye Massey; Ryshonda Beechem; Eddie Jones; Frank Boyd; James Harrell; Michael Adams; Margie Warren. All recipients of this demand are jointly responsible for its repayment.
State Auditor Stacey Pickering said, “For years, the leadership of Pelahatchie abused these funds by attempting to use them to enhance the overall city budget when they were mandated to be allocated to the Pelahatchie Police Department. OSA will continue to work to assist local governments when questions regarding proper use of public funds arise, but we will also ensure that misspent money is recovered on behalf of Mississippians.”
Former Mayor Knox Ross released this statement on May 26: “This past week (May 21), the current and former administrations of the Town of Pelahatchie were served with demands by the State Auditor regarding the operation of our criminal seizure fund. We were surprised by the action, as we believed, and continue to believe based on the audits and subsequent additional review of the fund operations by our Certified Public Accountant, that we were operating within the law.
The town’s public safety operations have vastly improved over the past few years, with additional officers, vehicles, equipment, and facilities, all made possible by the criminal seizure fund. We are proud of what we have been able to accomplish, and the State Auditor agrees with us that there are no funds missing, and at no time were any funds spent for any personal benefit. The funds were all spent on public purposes for the benefit of our town.
We look forward to meeting with the State Auditor and his staff to further explain our position and belief that we handled these funds correctly.
We are proud of our town and how we all worked together to make it better. All of us are committed to resolving this issue and cooperating fully with the State Auditor to do just that.”