Lexington police investigating jail staffer accused of charging city bogus overtime
Lexington police are investigating a former Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center employee accused by jail administrators of charging the city 400 hours of overtime he never worked over 18 months.
Sgt. Jeremy Abney resigned from the jail in November after jail administrators did an extensive investigation into Abney’s overtime records, according to documents the Lexington Herald-Leader obtained through an Open Records Act request.
Last week, Mayor Linda Gorton said she had asked the law department and human resources to look at the case after the Herald-Leader asked questions about the investigation and Abney’s status.
During a Tuesday council work session, Gorton told the council the information was turned over to the Lexington Police Department for review.
“All of you know there is a process with personnel issues and a chain of command,” Gorton said.
When asked why it took several months after Abney resigned to ask Lexington police look into the matter, city officials said they were recently made aware of the severity of the allegations.
“When the mayor learned about this last week she asked for more investigation,” said Susan Straub, a spokesperson for the city. “The mayor wants to dig deeper because of the potential seriousness of the allegation.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman Richard Moloney raised concerns about the status of the case since it involved a potentially substantial amount of money.
“It’s terrible how he abused the power,” Moloney said.
Moloney and other council members said they heard about the allegations against Abney in December.
Abney’s lawyer said in a statement Friday his client had worked extensive overtime the past two years and it was an innocent mistake. The jail is severely short-staffed.
“In their negotiated settlement agreement and release, neither LFUCG nor Sgt. Abney admitted any fault with respect to the allegations,” said Nick Oleson, Abney’s lawyer. “Sgt. Abney maintains his actions were innocent and occurred during a period of extensive overtime demands at the facility.”
Documents obtained by the newspaper did not calculate how much money Abney allegedly received from the city but didn’t work. He was paid time and a half to work overtime at $39.64. an hour. In total, that could mean Abney charged the city $15,856 for time he never worked.
According to an Oct. 5 memo written by Maj. Matt LeMonds, Abney’s time card listed 53 days he had claimed overtime — anywhere from two hours to 11 hours — but his swipe card showed he was not in the building.
In addition, documents showed other instances where Abney worked a few hours of overtime but claimed more than he worked. Time sheets also showed instances where another jail employee worked Abney’s overtime shifts for him yet he still claimed overtime on his time sheets.
The discrepancies occurred between January 2020 and May 2021, according to records.
The questionable overtime was discovered when Abney worked a shift he typically doesn’t work. He was listed as working overtime but was not in the building.
Lexington officials have said Abney’s immediate supervisors were not investigated after the potential discrepancies were discovered because overtime is common at the jail. Since July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, overtime at the jail has topped $1 million, city officials have said.
