By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NOEL, Mo. — More than $10,530 is missing from Noel’s municipal court coffers, largely as a result of poor oversight, state auditors said Monday.
A review by the office of state Auditor Susan Montee found that Noel’s municipal court received $8,821 in court fines and costs that were never deposited over a nearly two-year period ending Dec. 31. Records also showed that the city marshal’s office received four cash bonds totaling $1,710, but that those funds were never deposited.
The audit period focused on the time when the late Patsy LeSueur served as the court clerk. LeSueur resigned from that post in late September, several days before she was charged with felony theft for allegedly embezzling almost $90,000 from the New-Mac Regional Humane Society. LeSueur served as that organization’s treasurer.
The theft charge against LeSueur was dropped in the wake of her Feb. 9 death of injuries she suffered in an earlier traffic accident in Utah.
A phone message left for the man who was city marshal during the audit period, Ellsworth “Ozzie” Amos, was not returned Monday. Amos was defeated in his re-election bid in April, a little less than two years after several city officials unsuccessfully sought to impeach him. He was accused of misuse of city funds, largely based on unauthorized fuel purchases. Amos also was later charged, and acquitted by a jury, of two counts of misdemeanor animal abuse after two dogs died of neglect while in the city’s care.
Internal controls
The audit attributed the missing money to “poor” internal controls that included a failure to regularly reconcile receipts and deposits, and allowing LeSueur to oversee the court’s funds without supervision or independent verification of the finances.
Other criticisms included inadequate records of the cases heard in the local court and of traffic tickets issued by the marshal’s office. LeSueur and other unnamed city employees also were allowed to cash personal checks from municipal division receipts, auditors said.
The Noel municipal court last year had more than $120,400 in receipts, compared with nearly $125,680 in 2007.
The state recommended an array of policy changes including better documentation to reconcile receipts and deposits, a better system to track court cases and traffic tickets, and stronger oversight of the court clerk’s position.
Lewis Davis, recently elected mayor, said the city would implement all the recommendations outlined by the audit and also would appoint a deputy court clerk so that the oversight of the finances is not concentrated in one position. The city also has a new marshal.
Those changes should make it so that “the likelihood of this ever happening again will be very small,” Davis said.
As for the city’s next move, including whether to contact authorities, Davis said the Board of Aldermen would discuss the audit during next week’s meeting. The board also will have to discuss the issue with its attorney.
Davis said he thinks the city might be able to recover some of the money through the bonds backing the offices of court clerk and city marshal, although he could not yet say how much.
Asked Monday whether he had concerns about any other city money being missing, Davis said he did not. LeSueur served as both the city clerk and the court clerk for Noel for several years.
“We had an audit in December, and nothing showed up at that time,” Davis said of that review, which covered the city’s finances. “I feel pretty certain that there isn’t anything else.”
State reviews
Sean Spence, a spokesman for the state auditor’s office, said the agency initiated the audit of Noel’s municipal court at the request of Circuit Judge Tim Perigo. The 40th Judicial Circuit encompasses Newton and McDonald counties.
The state has been looking at oversight measures at municipal courts after the auditor’s office found about $1.3 million missing from Springfield Municipal Court in 2007.
“Many of the municipal courts have not been done for years,” Spence said, noting that Montee has made reviewing those courts a priority. “They are certainly going to be a priority for the foreseeable future.”
Perigo said presiding circuit judges were urged to look at municipal courts within their areas. He said he requested an audit at Noel last year partly because of rumors about the municipal court operations that arose during separate criminal investigations.
A phone message left at the McDonald County prosecutor’s office on Monday was not returned.
