Former Lexington jail staffer charged for claiming 400 hours in bogus overtime
A former Fayette County Detention Center sergeant accused of falsifying his time card and claiming 400 hours of overtime he did not work is now charged with a felony.
Jeremy Abney, 35, of Clay City, was charged with theft by deception over $10,000, a felony, in late March.
His arraignment is scheduled for June 15.
The charges come nearly five months after Abney resigned from the Fayette County Detention Center in November after being confronted with multiple discrepancies on his time card.
The Lexington Herald-Leader requested Abney’s personnel records and the investigation into the theft in December through an Open Records Act request. The records were not turned over until February.
According to city records, Abney’s time card listed 53 days he had claimed overtime — ranging from two hours to 11 hours — but his swipe card showed he was not in the building.
There were other instances where Abney was listed as working only a few hours of overtime but claimed more on his time sheet, according to an internal investigation by top detention center officials.
Additionally, jail records showed that other staffers had worked Abney’s overtime for him, yet he claimed the overtime on his time sheet.
According to Abney’s arrest citation, the theft allegedly occurred between January 2020 and January 2021.
A lawyer for Abney said his client thought the matter was settled when he agreed to resign.
“In October 2021, LFUCG completed an extensive investigation of the same allegations prompting this criminal charge. The investigation did not result in the termination of Sgt. Abney; instead, he and LFUCG executed a mutual settlement agreement in which they both denied any wrongdoing and released each other from all claims and liability relating to these allegations. This criminal charge is certainly unexpected and rather unfortunate, given the extensive investigation and mutual settlement. Sgt. Abney maintains his innocence, and he looks forward to defending this criminal charge,” said Nick Oleson, a lawyer for the Fraternal Order of Police Town Branch Lodge, which represents jail employees.
The jail has struggled to retain and attract employees over the past two years. It has nearly 100 vacancies, according to jail staff.
The amount Abney is accused of charging the city but did not work was not included in city documents or in the arrest citation.
Abney made $26.43 an hour. He was paid time and a half to work overtime at $39.64 an hour. He is accused of charging 402 hours of overtime he did not work, meaning he could have charged the city $15,935.
Some council members questioned why it took the city so long to turn over the internal investigation to Lexington police. That information was not forwarded to authorities until the Herald-Leader wrote a story about the allegations against Abney in February.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton has previously said personnel matters take time to process and that was the reason for the delay. Gorton said once she learned of the severity of the allegations, she turned it over to the law department and the human resources department for further review.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 11:17 AM.
