Former deputy guilty of abuse of public trust

She gets probation after plea

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

A former Saline County sheriff's office employee pleaded guilty Thursday morning to one count of abuse of public trust.

In pleading guilty to the felony in Saline County Circuit Court, Jo Nell Mallory, 62, was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to the sheriff's office.

Mallory is the ex-chief deputy of finance for former Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington.

Pennington, 64, and Mallory were arrested in May 2014 after a legislative audit released a month earlier found that the sheriff's office used designated funds inappropriately and failed to account for thousands of dollars for at least two years.

The audit was requested by special prosecutor Cody Hiland, who was appointed in 2013 to look into allegations about the sheriff's office and had asked the Arkansas State Police to open a criminal investigation.

The sheriff's office came under scrutiny after Pennington was arrested on June 29, 2013, on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. He was later convicted of the charges and sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation, plus $3,300 in fines and court fees.

Mallory was accused of waiving court fees and fines in exchange for free tile installation at her home and taking as much as $3,000 from telephone kiosks in the sheriff's office for her personal use.

Hiland, who is Faulkner County's prosecuting attorney, said Mallory's "immediate forthrightness as to her participation and her willingness to assist in the investigation into Bruce Pennington was taken into account ... when evaluating the degree to which sentencing should be imposed."

A message left with the office of an attorney representing Mallory, John Kennedy, was not returned Thursday.

Pennington faces a state felony charge of abuse of public trust, a felony count of theft of property and a misdemeanor count of theft of property.

The state charges accuse Pennington of accepting free granite countertops in 2012 in his Benton home in exchange for voiding a community service penalty for the granite company's owner, who received a speeding ticket in White County.

He is also accused of cashing a $1,000 check made out to the sheriff's office and using it for personal expenses, and using money from telephone kiosks in the sheriff's office and the jail to pay his legal fees stemming from the alcohol-related misdemeanors.

Pennington pleaded guilty in August to a federal wire-fraud charge, admitting that he used about $22,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses, such as paying his mortgage and utility bills, buying groceries and gambling.

Pennington is scheduled for a Dec. 7 sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Little Rock on those federal charges.

A pretrial hearing on Pennington's state charges is set for Jan. 27, with trial set for Jan. 28.

In the investigation, a third sheriff's office ex-employee, Michael Frost, 61, 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 felonies.

Frost, who pleaded innocent, awaits trial on March 29.

State Desk on 11/13/2015

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Upcoming Events