Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404120145
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER NOTE: above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But some supervisors remained puzzled that the five-month investigation did not yield charges of wrongdoing against Wells.
What the investigation and the resulting report amount to is "much ado about nothing," said Supervisor Dale Wheeler. "Since the state said that nothing happened, it's like a tree fell in the woods and nobody heard it ... The system has spoken. I can't second-judge the system."
The Board of Supervisors last met with special prosecutor Eric Sisler on March 21 in a closed-door executive session. According to a source who was present at the meeting, Sisler indicated that criminal charges or a grand jury investigation was likely.
Sisler said Monday that the possibility of criminal charges was among many options discussed with the Board of Supervisors. Wells' depositing his employees' payroll into his personal account was "probably not the best thing he could have done," Sisler said.
But it was impossible to prosecute Wells for an act that was not illegal at the time.
Wells stopped commingling funds in April 1993, two months before a new state law went into effect that made it illegal for sheriffs to deposit personal and public funds in the same account. The new law also specifically defined the types of accounts that sheriffs could maintain and how they could maintain them.
Until that time, there was a statute that dealt with the commingling of funds, Sisler said. But that original statute did not apply to Wells because it applied "to funds that a designated person would collect on behalf of the county and then remit back to the county," Sisler said. "In the sheriff's case, he wasn't getting the money to give back to the county."
Sisler's investigation audited Wells' payroll account over an 11-year period. During that time, Wells has admitted to depositing his personal paycheck and his employee payroll check into the same account. Wells also has admitted to writing personal checks from that account, according to Sisler's report.
Sisler's report found that Wells used about $10,000 of interest generated by the payroll account to purchase a used Ford pickup for himself. That purchase caused the payroll account to be overdrawn by $715.64.
Well has maintained that the interest is his to keep. The supervisors recently contested that ownership by filing a civil lawsuit in the county's Circuit Court. At stake is about $15,000 of interest.
That legal issue has yet to be played out in court. But according to several supervisors, Wells has done no wrong.
"I certainly think that Carl was comfortable in what he was doing," said Supervisor Lucille Boggess. "I don't think he had any intent of doing anything wrong."
Wells' attorney, John Alford, said simply that the prosecutor's report vindicates the sheriff of any wrongdoing. And "clearly it shows how cruel and malicious and unreliable the press and media really are."
by CNB