Kentucky county official charged with official misconduct and tampering with records
The clerk of Owsley County has been indicted on charges of tampering with public records and official misconduct, according to Attorney General Russell Coleman.
A grand jury in Franklin County indicted Shanna Oliver, 41, of Booneville on Wednesday, Coleman said in a news release.
The release said the tampering charge is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The misconduct charge is a misdemeanor.
The indictment charges that Oliver illegally refused to deliver public records from her office to the Kentucky Department of Vehicle Regulation, and that she failed to do her duty by not sending paperwork on the purchase of a trailer to the department, according to Coleman’s office.
Oliver can stay in office while the charges are pending. She was not available for comment Thursday morning.
Dakota Stamper and Matt Easter, detectives with the Attorney General’s Office, investigated the case.
County clerks in Kentucky are elected and handle a range of duties, including vehicle licensing, preparing bills for taxes that help support local school systems and county governments, and conducting elections.
Oliver has faced a number of critical audits.
An audit released in 2020, for instance, pointed to a number of shortcomings in Oliver’s office, including not completing required reports, not properly reconciling the bank account and not preparing some tax bills on time.
Another audit released in 2019 also cited a number of problems, including that Oliver didn’t prepare franchise tax bills until long after they should have been prepared, meaning local agencies such as the school system, the library and the health department didn’t receive tax revenue on time.
“The county clerk is not fulfilling her duties as an elected county official . . . and does not have adequate controls in place to ensure financial reporting is timely, complete, and accurate,” the auditor’s office said in one report.
Oliver was a deputy clerk under the prior officeholder, Sid Gabbard, whose bookkeeping was so bad that auditors weren’t able to express an opinion on the accuracy of his financial statements for a decade.
Gabbard resigned in June 2013 after being indicted on charges related to audit findings. He entered an Alford plea to charges of filing false tax returns and abuse of public trust, meaning he did not admit guilt but acknowledged there was sufficient evidence to convict him.
A judge sentenced Gabbard to eight years in prison, but probated the term under a deal for Gabbard to pay delinquent taxes and $61,118 in restitution.
Oliver was appointed to replace Gabbard and has held the office since.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024 at 10:23 AM.
