The lead investigator in the state’s case against suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly took the stand Wednesday, when he testified for nearly four hours about Kelly’s alleged negligence to produce a series of important documents over the last two years.
The lead investigator in the state’s case against suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly took the stand Wednesday, when he testified for nearly four hours about Kelly’s alleged negligence to produce a series of important documents over the last two years.
Kelly’s trial continued with witness testimonies from a law enforcement agent, a campaign manager and a local newspaper editor.
Kevin Cooper, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and lead investigator in Kelly’s case, was called to the stand for examination by Assistant Attorney General James C. Roberts.
Cooper said he was assigned to Kelly's case in late November or early December 2012 — which later led to a 25-count indictment served to Kelly in January 2014 by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Cooper told the jury he was primarily asked to investigate allegations that Kelly had mishandled county money, especially after it was reported that Kelly helped destroy county documents containing important financial information in May2013.
Cooper was given a series of receipts in May 2013 from McKee Auto Parts & Recycling that weren’t accounted for by the sheriff. Cooper said he and his partner had wanted to know what cash Kelly had accepted.
In June, Cooper received a call from Kelly, who said he had spent some of the money received from the scrapyard, but still had hundreds left in his wallet.
He told Cooper he would deposit the remaining money — just under $400 — in the county's general fund, which he did on June 13, 2013.
Cooper told the jury that after subpoenaing McKee’s employees, he eventually recovered documents that suggested Kelly received thousands of dollars in cash from the scrapyard for transactions dating back to 2009.
A subpoena was then issued to Kelly in mid-August 2013, which requested that Kelly account for of all of the transactions with McKee's. While Cooper was talking to Kelly in his office, he repeatedly told the BCI agent that he hadn't taken any money.
In a recording of that meeting, presented as evidence Wednesday morning, Kelly said, "I can tell you where that money went."
Cooper said he never found where the money went. Later that August, Kelly presented the agent with a spreadsheet of dollar amounts and dates similar to the sale of the scrap tickets. Cooper testified that the document didn’t necessarily connect with evidence from McKee’s scrapyard, and was created in July 2013 — titled “Murders2009.xls” — on Kelly’s computer.
During a conversation with Kelly in August, Cooper said he suggested the money was spent on confidential informants that assisted in drug busts. The identities of those confidential informants were then requested by the BCI.
Through a search warrant, BCI recovered a document from Kelly’s computer titled list.pdf, created in January 2013, which was "closely related to monies missing from the cashbox," Cooper said.
In response to an August subpoena, Kelly provided a list of the confidential informants in a September hearing in an effort to quash that subpoena. The names of the confidential informants had been redacted.
Cooper told the jury the BCI was able to determine that the document Kelly provided in court that day was a combination of two files — the excel document titled Murders2009, and the PDF titled "list."
Cooper referred to that document as the “second version” of Murders2009.
In a recording from that hearing presented as evidence, Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove asked Kelly if he produced all the files he knew to contain information about confidential informants. Kelly told her he had no documentation outside of what he had presented.
Joe Higgins, editor of The Athens Messenger, was the next witness to testify Wednesday. Higgins told the jury that Kelly made multiple statements to the Messenger since his election in 2008 and said those quotes had been double or triple-checked by editors.
Clinton Stanley, Kelly’s former campaign manager, testified Wednesday on allegations that Kelly had directed him to write campaign checks to the sheriff’s personal account.
Stanley was given two cash donations during Kelly’s election, each for $500, which he later turned into checks. One was deposited into the campaign account — titled “reelect county sheriff” — and one, at Kelly’s request, was written out to his personal account.
Stanley said he was unaware at the time that it’s illegal to accept a cash donation of more than $100, though there is no limit on the amount that can be donated in a check.
“I screwed up,” Stanley told the jury. “I shouldn’t have done what I done.”
@Fair3Julia
jf311013@ohio.edu
