Suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly told the jury in his trial Monday morning he had dreamed of being sheriff even in his boyhood, when he would don a plastic badge and declare "I'm the sheriff! I'm the sheriff!" to his siblings.
Suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly told the jury in his trial Monday morning he had dreamed of being sheriff even in his boyhood, when he would don a plastic badge and declare "I'm the sheriff! I'm the sheriff!" to his siblings.
When Kelly took the stand Monday to be examined by Scott Wood, his defense attorney, he proudly testified that he was still sheriff — technically. He was suspended by the Athens County Commissioners following a 25-count indictment in January of 2014, and handed 23 felony charges and two misdemeanor charges by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine during a press conference.
Rodney Smith was appointed by the commissioners to serve as his interim.
But Kelly told the jury that after he had lost the race for sheriff in 2004, he knew he'd be coming back for his "lifelong dream." He began campaigning shortly after for 2008's elections, and testified that he knocked on practically every door in the county to meet and get to know voters. One in particular told him her daughter had died of a drug overdose, and he vowed to her that he'd battle the county's drug problem with everything he had.
"It was my heartbeat to be sheriff," Kelly told the jury.
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Wood questioned Kelly on allegations that he had misused his campaign election dollars during that time and had additionally neglected to document certain expenditures on his campaign finance report. Kelly said that cash was taken out to pay for the gas his Jeep Cherokee used while driving around the county to meet residents.
His wife, Debra Kelly, who served as his campaign treasurer, also testified Monday morning. Kelly told the jury she was never aware of the cash withdrawals from the election fund for his gas, and that he had kept the receipts in his vehicle over the years. That's why, he said, she hadn't reported the expenditures on the campaign finance reports.
"I never told her about it or thought about it," he said. "I didn't even think about it."
The assistant attorney generals had presented 13 campaign checks the state had seized, detailing that Kelly had deposited them in whole or in part for cash. Kelly said there was never a penny used from those cash withdrawals that didn't go toward his campaign.
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"I didn't use that money for personal reasons — ever," he testified.
After Kelly took office in 2009, he told the jury he promptly turned his attention to the county's drug problem. He hired two paid confidential informants, which he paid out of a cashbox within his office. However, he did not document these confidential informants.
Kelly told the jury the investigations his office was conducting were sensitive and required completely confidentiality, as one informant was a former law enforcement officer and had a family. These informants worked separately from the sheriff's Narcotics Enforcement Team, then headed by Jerry Hallowell, and would report back to Kelly.
Kelly testified that both Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn and Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson pushed him to reveal his confidential informants. Though he refused to do so, he said he did document all of the money coming in and out of the sheriff's cashbox.
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Eventually, Kelly moved to take the Law Enforcement Trust Fund, which contained some of the money that paid confidential informants, out of the reach of the auditor's office and into his department.
During some drug busts, Kelly told the jury he would confiscate vehicles related to the crime. Kelly said he then would approach the Athens County Commissioners and decide whether to salvage these vehicles, or trade them for deputy cruisers. If they were salvaged, he said, they'd be taken to McKee Auto Parts & Recycling.
Kelly testified that any money made from these scrap sales went back to the LETF or Drug Law Enforcement fund — both of which contained funding for informants.
However, Kelly has been accused of wrongfully using funds from the sheriff's Furtherance of Justice account to pay for unauthorized suits from Men's Wearhouse, which he then wore on the job.
Kelly told the jury he did in fact purchase two suits from the store, and spent $600 out of the FOJ fund but saw the purchase as justified.
Kelly testified that sheriff's deputies receive $600 for a uniform budget, though he was not allotted the same funding. Kelly said he eventually wrote a check back to the county's general fund to refund the suits.
Further, Kelly was questioned by Wood regarding allegations that he had intentionally destroyed county records that could have been pertinent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's research.
Kelly told the jury he never removed records from the county garage at the Athens County Fairgrounds — he simply moved them to the Athens County Job and Family Services garage on Lancaster Street. He said all of the records he removed had been microfilmed, and that he didn't send any documents to the county landfill until Blackburn suggested he do so.
Kelly told the jury he moved the documents because he needed room in the garage for new records.
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