Former Wayne County Clerk Melissa Turpin has a circuit court hearing set for December 21 regarding charges that resulted from an investigation into the final 10 months she served in office. Specifics about the charges are not available at this time, since this hearing is scheduled as the result of information filed by prosecutors and not from a formal indictment handed down by a grand jury.

Turpin resigned from the office on October 20, 2009 after pleading guilty to charges of theft and abuse of public trust, which stemmed from deficits in audits of her office for 2007 and 2008.

The final audit for Turpin covers the period from January 1, 2009 through October 20, 2009 and included a deficit of $11,512, according to the report issued by State Auditor Crit Luallen. The deficit resulted from undeposited receipts totaling $7,540, and operating disbursements of 43,972 that lacked supporting documentation of explanation, according to that report.

That deficit was referred to the Kentucky State Police and the State Attorney General for investigation, as were several other findings from the audit. The findings included two instances where motor vehicle transactions were voided. According to the audit, individuals came into the county clerk’s office inquiring about vehicle titles. Neither had received vehicle titles after licensing and both taxpayers had proof of payment along with the certificate of registration.

The audit stated, “After researching these incidents, auditors determined the former county clerk, identified by the user identification number, had collected the monies from the taxpayers but had voided the transactions in the AVIS system the same date. Neither the money collected nor the transactions were included in the usage tax, registration fee, or title fee reports as being collected on that date.”

The second issue involved releasing of liens on vehicles owned by Turpin. The audit noted that several of the former county court clerk’s personal vehicle liens were inappropriately released through the AVIS system and transferred.

The audit noted, “Auditors requested and received a report of all liens that were released during the 2009 calendar year from the Department of Transportation. We tested a sample of liens released by sending confirmation to secured parties of record. The results of confirmations resulted in additional liens being released inappropriately.”

Commonwealth Attorney Matthew Leveridge stated that the information filed against Turpin is based upon the state police investigation into the audit findings from 2009.