Ex-Fayette clerk allegedly altered traffic citations and pocketed the payments

A Lexington man altered Fayette District Court traffic citations while employed as a deputy clerk, a grand jury has charged in an indictment.

James Anthony Blythe, 26, of Lexington was indicted last week on 10 counts of tampering with public records. Each charge is a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.

The grand jury dismissed an 11^th count against Blythe, who has since resigned as a deputy clerk in district court.

A citation says Blythe admitted to altering 10 case jackets. The case jackets are envelopes that list a chronology of a case and they contain supporting documents from police, such as citations.

Fayette Circuit Clerk Vince Riggs said the alleged altering of records all involved traffic citations. “He was not authorized to change things in the court record,” Riggs said.

Blythe also admitted to “pocketing some of the cash he was given as payment” in relation to the cases, the citation said.

Restitution to district court was calculated at $2,198, the citation said. “Instead of the money coming into the court, he just took it,” Riggs said.

Blythe, who had worked as a deputy clerk for about two years, had a gross annual pay of $23,836, according to a state database.

The indictment said the tampering of the 10 cases happened on or about July 20.

Riggs said a “very strict accounting system” discovered the alleged activity. “Our current procedure is what caught it,” he said.

Tampering with public records is a relatively rare charge.

In 2010, a Lexington man was sentenced to one year in prison for taking 188 marriage licenses from the Woodford County clerk’s office. He received probation on separate charges filed in Jessamine, Scott, Bourbon and Fayette counties. All the records were returned to the various counties.

No records were taken from district court in the Blythe case. Blythe is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 17 in Fayette Circuit Court.

This story was originally published November 6, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Ex-Fayette clerk allegedly altered traffic citations and pocketed the payments."