The director of the Caldwell Co pound in KY, Abigail Tucker, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges stemming from incidents occurring between 2007 and 2010. The charges seem to involve money although there is a reference to “property” as well:
[T]here are several acts by Ms. Tucker which involve improper accounting of monies given to her as donations, failure to make proper dispositions and accounting of property that she had possession of as the animal control officer here in Caldwell County. Improperly inducing donations to the animal shelter,” [Commonwealth Attorney G.L.] Ovey said.
Ms. Tucker, who is also a police officer, has additionally been indicted on the submission of false pay vouchers for county employees. She is currently on paid suspension and set to be arraigned in August.
I wonder what “improperly inducing donations to the animal shelter” means?
I was wondering that too.
Maybe she solicited people and businesses for monetary donations FOR the shelter but it was not within her job description or by authorization of the powers that be that control the shelter. Therefore, anything she personally accepted “on behalf of” the shelter, well, there’s no accounting of it. Exactly how much she collected and turned over will take a nice little audit (:
It could mean making false statements about the use of the donations that would make people want to give money that they may not otherwise give. For example, stating that the money will be used to buy new beds for the animals with no real intent to do so. Or, as in the case of some shelters, calling themselves “no-kill” when they are not. In short, it sounds like a form of false advertising.
And she’s still being paid? I don’t get that part.
On one hand everyone is innocent until proven guilty but OTOH I often hear about people who prevail in court being awarded back pay. So it seems at least some people are not suspended with pay under similar circumstances. Maybe it is a govt vs.private sector thing.
I think it’s more of a union thing. I see it quite a bit with shelter staff here in California. I know of one director who has been suspended with pay for nearly a year! Apparently he is now threatening to sue the city for whatever reason based on his suspension/removal from his position.
Hmm. Interesting. Keep us updated, if you can, Shirley! :)