Moses final audit results issue in race

Questions regarding excess fees and deficits owed after former Sheriff H.D. Moses left office in 1998 have become another political football in a campaign replete with accusations of wrongdoing on all sides.
Current Sheriff Lawrence Hodge claims Moses mishandled funds during the end of his tenure, pointing to audit reports made public in 2001 showing Moses owed about $30,000 in excess fees and $99,140 missing from the 1997 and prior tax account.
On Aug. 9, 2000, the Whitley County Fiscal Court received $99,101 from The Hartford – a bonding company that insured Moses while he was in office. County officials are required to be bonded to cover possible malfeasance or unintentional budgetary problems.
Though reimbursement to The Hartford was the subject of a federal court civil case, Moses contends he’s never had to pay anything and called the whole incident a “paperwork” snafu.
“That was all just in the paperwork,” Moses said. “There was nothing missing. I never paid them anything. If anything would have been missing, I would have had to pay it back and I never paid back anything.”
A settlement was reached in the civil case, but the details of the settlement were never made public. Moses never faced any criminal charges.
In audit reports presented to the Whitley County Fiscal Court in 2001, auditors said accounts were properly segregated, tax settlement statements weren’t presented to the court or properly published in the local newspaper, and that Moses did not keep proper time records for employees.
Former Sheriff Ancil Carter, who served as a deputy under Moses, said in 2001 that he thinks the deficits could have been accidental – as simple as money being deposited into the wrong accounts.
“I worked for the man [Moses] for 13 years and I’ve never known of him being dishonest,” Carter said.