3 charged in sheriff-office graft

Affidavits: Cash taken, pills traded for sex in Saline County

Former Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington took money from inmate calling-card kiosks to pay his own court fees stemming from his alcohol-related convictions, according to an arrest affidavit prosecutors released Friday.

The three-term sheriff was one of three former Saline County sheriff's office employees arrested Friday and facing felony charges after concerns were highlighted in a legislative audit. The audit, released April 10, found that the sheriff's office used designated funds inappropriately and failed to account for thousands of dollars for at least two years.

On Friday, Pennington, 63, and Jo Nell Mallory, 60 -- the former chief deputy of finance -- were charged with abuse of public trust and theft of property, both Class D felonies. Pennington also faces a misdemeanor charge of theft of property. A third ex-employee, Mike Frost, 59, who was the lieutenant over the criminal investigation division, was charged with illegal use of a communication facility and delivery of a controlled substance, both Class C felonies.

Neither the ex-employees nor their attorneys could be reached for comment. Pennington did not answer a call late Friday, and his voice mail wasn't set up. Telephone numbers for Mallory and Frost were either disconnected or out of service. It was unclear Friday who their attorneys were.

According to arrest affidavits, Pennington admitted to Arkansas State Police investigators that he took between $700 and $800 from Mallory to pay his fines to the county district court.

"Pennington stated he knew these funds came from the telephone kiosks," the affidavit states. The money from the kiosks -- a total of $5,610 -- was missing from Jan. 1 to Nov. 6, 2013.

Benton police arrested Pennington July 29 after spotting an intoxicated man getting into a vehicle at Denton's Trotline, a restaurant and bar that has since closed. Pennington was sitting in the driver's seat of a 2008 GMC Yukon.

He was convicted in August of public intoxication and resisting arrest -- both misdemeanors -- and was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation and about $3,300 in court fees and fines, according to court documents. Those fees were paid off, documents show.

After the conviction, Penningon repeatedly changed his mind about resigning as sheriff but then decided to leave Oct. 1. He also was one of seven Republican candidates running for sheriff this election cycle, but dropped out of the race because of health reasons, he has said.

With Friday's arrest, Pennington also is accused of accepting free countertops in his Benton home in exchange for voiding a man's community service, according to the affidavit.

Glen McElroy, who works for Arkansas Granite and More company in Benton, received a speeding ticket in White County on Aug. 2, 2012, and a White County judge ordered him to complete 11 days of community service, the affidavit states. McElroy asked Pennington to move the community service to Saline County.

In an interview with the state police, McElroy said Pennington sent a letter to the White County District Court saying the granite employee completed the court-ordered community service.

"McElroy in his statement said he approached Pennington to return the favor about installing some granite countertops in his home free of charge," the affidavit said. "McElroy said that they installed countertops and a backsplash in Pennington's home" on Nov. 1, 2012.

Investigators obtained an invoice for the work dated April 11, 2014.

"There is also witnesses who stated Bruce Pennington bragged about the countertops and how he obtained them," the affidavit said. "In the interview conducted with Bruce Pennington he admitted the letter he sent to the White County District Court stating Glen McElroy had completed his court ordered community service was false."

The legislative audit also found that Pennington received a $1,000 check from David Parker. Pennington told auditors he cashed the check and gave the money to the Saline County Fraternal Order of Police, and that the money was later used to buy vests for the sheriff's office's Special Weapons and Tactics team.

He later admitted to investigators that he had spent the money for personal use, according to the affidavit.

Similarly, Mallory took between $2,500 and $3,000 from the inmate calling-card kiosks for her personal use, investigators said. Mallory was responsible for removing and counting the money from those machines.

Up to $2,410 is still in unaccounted for from the kiosks.

Affidavits also say Mallory approached the brother of Rickey Billingsley, a man convicted of possession of a firearm by certain persons, and asked the brother -- who owns a flooring company -- if Rickey Billingsley could install tile in her home. A judge sentenced Billingsley to six years of probation and about $2,500 in court fees and fines, according to court documents.

Mallory agreed to get rid of Billingsley's court fees and fines if he installed the tile and didn't charge her for the labor, the affidavit states. Rickey Billingsley told investigators he wasn't paid for 2 1/2 days of work.

"In the interview with Jo Nell Mallory she stated she had a conversation with then Sheriff Bruce Pennington about the issue," the affidavit states. "Due to the fact Billingsley had performed the personal work in the residence of Mallory and per the conversation Mallory said she had with Bruce Pennington she decided to zero out the balance of the fines imposed on Rickey Billingsley."

Court fees and fines are paid through the sheriff's office, and officials there send the courts a document stating that a convict has paid off what is owed.

The district court has no record that Billingsley paid off the fines.

Mallory was given the option Oct. 4 to resign from the sheriff's office, and she initially did. But she later withdrew the resignation and was subsequently fired.

Prosecutors contend that Frost -- the former lieutenant at the sheriff's office -- gave drugs to a federal confidential informant. The informant sent a text message to Frost's work cellphone on June 4, 2013, asking for narcotics, according to an affidavit.

A state police special agent, along with an FBI task force officer, went to the informant's home the next day, when Frost told her he "was on his way to the [informant's] residence to supply him/her with the requested narcotics," the affidavit states.

Frost showed up in his unmarked Saline County sheriff's office-issued vehicle and spent about five minutes with the informant, agents said. After he left, the informant showed the investigators "a small plastic wrapping material which contained two white tablets," later identified as oxycodone acetaminophen, the affidavit said.

The informant told investigators she had been receiving pills from Frost from "around 2012 and 2013."

"In the statement, [the informant] said Frost knew if [the informant] got pills from him Frost in turn would get sex from [her]," the affidavit states.

Frost retired from the sheriff's office Jan. 16 "due to health reasons," according to the letter he submitted to the administration.

State police special agents arrested Pennington just after 11 a.m. Friday at the Wal-Mart in Benton, but he has since paid a $2,500 bond. Mallory and Frost surrendered Friday afternoon. Frost posted a $5,000 bond, and Mallory was released after she signed a notice she will appear in court.

All three are expected in court June 9.

The legislative audit came at the request of prosecutor Cody Hiland, who was specially appointed to start an investigation into the sheriff's office last year. Hiland, who is Faulkner County's prosecuting attorney, also had asked the state police to begin a criminal investigation into the sheriff's office related to "possible improper expenditures, a missing patrol car and alleged misconduct by employees of the office," according to a letter the prosecutor had sent to the law enforcement agency.

The charges didn't address some of the audit's other findings.

Those findings included Pennington's credit-card charges for $1,170 to the county, which he later reimbursed from his campaign fund. Pennington also spent $5,338, auditors said, but there wasn't any documentation for those expenses.

He used more than $2,000 for gas instead of using a fuel card and charged the county for "numerous meal and travel" costs without handing over documentation stating the expenses were business-related, auditors said.

Among the other audit findings, the sheriff's office used $86,259 from the Sheriff's Communication, Facility, and Equipment Fund -- money raised from fees -- for unauthorized purposes, according to state law. According to Arkansas Code Annotated 21-6-307, a sheriff's office can retain 25 percent of the collected fees, but the money must be used to train operations staff; operate, equip, repair or replace existing communications equipment; purchase additional communications equipment; or otherwise improve a communications facility or system for the sheriff's office

Instead, those funds were used for advertising, tickets, promotional items, flooring, memberships and subscriptions, accounting software, clothing and utilities, the audit found. The sheriff's office spent nearly 30 percent each on advertising and ticket costs.

Auditors also said the sheriff's office disbursed $10,395 to several businesses "without adequate documentation."

Interim Sheriff Cleve Barfield, who the county Quorum Court appointed after Pennington resigned, has implemented some "basic" safeguards to ensure checks and balances within the agency, sheriff's office spokesman Lt. Scottie Courtney said Friday.

Some of the changes include having a centralized secure file room where financial records are locked up and accessible to only the sheriff and the new chief financial officer, requiring two signatures on all checks, ensuring proper accounting procedures so that all transactions have a paper trail and requiring two employees to be present at the inmate calling-card kiosk when transactions are made.

Hiland said Friday that the investigation into the other audit findings is ongoing and includes "multiple agencies and multiple jurisdictions." More charges are possible for additional persons, he said.

The prosecutor noted that the charges and audit findings shouldn't be seen as a reflection on the sheriff's office.

"That organization shouldn't receive a black eye because of the actions of a few alleged bad actors," he said. "The people of Saline County can be secure and confident that Sheriff Barfield and the men and women of the Saline County sheriff's office are on the job and doing it right."

A Section on 05/17/2014

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Bruce Pennington, former Saline County sheriff.

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Jo Nell Mallory, the former chief deputy of finance for the Saline County sheriff's office.

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Michael Frost, a former lieutenant over the criminal investigations division for Saline County.

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