Ex-sheriff charged with theft

BENTON, Mo. -- Former Scott County sheriff William F. Ferrell was charged Friday with a felony count of stealing. The charge resulted from a grand jury indictment.

Ferrell, 67, of Sikeston, Mo., served as sheriff for 28 years before his retirement in 2004. He turned himself in to Missouri State Highway Patrol authorities in Sikeston on Friday and was released on $5,000 bond the same day.

According to a copy of the indictment supplied by Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Boyd, Ferrell is accused of stealing an amount between $500 and $25,000 from the "Sheriff's DARE and Crime Prevention Fund" between Dec. 1, 2004, and Feb. 26, 2005. The exact amount of the alleged theft was not disclosed. The charges stem from an investigation conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Dangerous Drugs and Crime Control prompted by a state audit of county finances conducted in 2006.

The indictment alleges the money in the fund is the property of Scott County. Ferrell did not return calls for comment Friday afternoon. In October he told the Southeast Missourian the money didn't belong to the county but to him.

"This is my money," Ferrell said at the time. "This is not accountable fees. There are no tax dollars involved in this."

Funds from the account were used to pay for moving Ferrell's personal property out of the sheriff's office, a retirement party, donations to the St. Louis Shriners Hospital and a $10,000 endowed scholarship in Ferrell's name at Southeast Missouri State University. The money in the account was raised at annual golf tournaments bearing Ferrell's name. Ferrell said no not-for-profit organization was set up to take the donations and that he had no DARE officer during most of his tenure.

Ferrell's comments stemmed from a state audit of the county and subsequent reporting of the audit findings in September. The audit reported "monies from the DARE Fund were not accounted for properly."

The audit report said current Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter contacted Ferrell about handing the money over to the county in February 2005, and Ferrell replied that the account had been emptied and was closed.

Walter declined to comment on the case Friday afternoon.

The audit raised other questions about finances during Ferrell's tenure. Auditors said there was little documentation to prove that $33,760 Ferrell received for mileage on personal cars used to transport prisoners was reasonable and raised questions about 10 guns the sheriff's department's log books showed as being released to Ferrell from seized property in the final days of his term as sheriff.

Ferrell denied any wrongdoing in both instances.

A 2002 state audit also questioned Ferrell's practices. That audit questioned the need for Ferrell to provide a personally owned fleet of six cars and one motorcycle for department use when the county provided the department with 13 vehicles that appeared to be underused. Ferrell disputed that those 13 vehicles were being underused at that time. The audit also raised concerns about the DARE fund, citing an attorney general's opinion that says sheriffs of third-class counties lack the legal authority to maintain a bank account for law enforcement independent of the county treasury.

At the time Scott County Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger, then the 2nd District commissioner, said "13 cars is more than adequate to serve the needs of the sheriff and the department."

A disagreement about the use of the county's fleet was one of several Ferrell had with Burger, former presiding commissioner Martin Priggel and former commissioner Walter Bizzell. The county commission also engaged in a public battle with Ferrell over what commission members saw as Ferrell's skirting of the bid process to install a new heating and air-conditioning unit in the county jail in 2001. Ferrell purchased the unit without going through the state bidding process in what he labeled an emergency situation.

Burger, Bizzell and Priggel are named as witnesses for the state in Ferrell's indictment. They were all unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.

Walter, the current sheriff, is also named as a witness.

While he declined to comment on the case, in January 2006 he told the Southeast Missourian he had put an additional $96,300 into the county's general revenue fund during 2005 from sheriff's office funds that had previously been administered by Ferrell and not transferred to general revenue. Those funds collected money from things like boarding of Sikeston's prisoners, serving of papers, payment by inmates to use the jail phone, mileage paid for using department vehicles and fees for transporting mental patients.

Ferrell said fees collected in most of those funds went to the county, except for fees for mileage, which Ferrell said he collected because of the use of his personal vehicles.

Other witnesses in the case include sheriff's deputy Jerry Bledsoe, Scott County Clerk Rita Milam and members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and others. In all 24 people were named as witnesses, including Southeast Missourian reporter Rudi Keller for his reporting on the 2006 audit.

St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCullouch has been appointed special prosecutor in the case. An arraignment before Scott County Circuit Court Judge David Dolan has been set for March 22, dependent upon McCullouch's ability to attend. If convicted, Ferrell could be sentenced to up to seven years in state prison or up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182