CLINTON COUNTY, Indiana — The Indiana Attorney General's Office filed a complaint against the Clinton County Sheriff and his wife in an attempt to recover public funds that were paid to the couple.
Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly and his wife, Ashley, are accused of official misconduct and criminal conflict of interest.
According to court documents, the couple contracted with Leonne LLC to manage the commissary operations at the Clinton County Jail.
It turns out the Kellys are the sole owners of Leonne LLC, and Ashley is the jail matron at Clinton County Jail.
The allegations against the couple said they did not fill out a conflict of interest disclosure, which meant Sheriff Kelly essentially entered into a contract with himself and his wife.
Ashley would allegedly write checks from the commissary profits to their company. The deposits into Leonne LLC totaled more than $177,000 in the first two years. Richard would also spend money from the Leonne LLC account.
That $177,000 was in addition to what the couple made with his salary as sheriff, and her salary as matron. The sheriff's salary over the two years totaled $186,869 with nearly $100,000 going into his pension.
Ashley's salary over the two years totaled $99,198. Between their salaries, pensions, disability and money from Leonne LLC, state police said the couple made $639,363 in two years.
The complaint went on to claim both Richard and Ashley signed that they would not violate nepotism laws, which included any local ordinances. There were also allegations Ashley did not properly document her hours while working as a jail matron and commissary manager.
An Indiana State Police investigation found an administrative assistant at the sheriff's office did not know what, or who, Leonne LLC even was - for more than two years. A county commissioner also told investigators they were not aware what or who Leonne LLC was.
ISP said the couple did file a disclosure in October 2021, but initially would not provide documents to investigators. Sheriff Kelly initially denied investigators the chance to talk with his employees without first going through his personal attorney.
At the time, the sheriff sent the following statement to 13News:
"Given the timeline of events, this is nothing more than a political farse. The items being contested are still in civil litigation in Tippecanoe County Court and are the same contained in the SBOA findings from last year and our subsequent response.
My wife and I look forward to continuing our efforts to increase public safety with the hiring of new deputies and jail staff, made possible by the nearly $1,500,000 federal inmate project that we brought into the community in 2020. We plan on announcing our medical savings to the county of over $388,000 for 2021 in the next week.
We also look forward to expanding our jail programs to a Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) that will incorporate more services to the recovery of inmates.
We will continue our successful programs, saving taxpayers money, reducing recidivism and providing state of the art technology, equipment and training to all members of our agency." - Sheriff Rich Kelly
Sheriff Kelly was reelected in 2022.
The Indiana Attorney General's Office is now trying to recover "the misappropriations and diversions of public funds."
Richard and Ashley are both criminally charged with official misconduct and conflict of interest. They will have their next court hearing on April 25.
