Audit accuses Missouri sheriff’s office of “questionable buys” on booze, cigarettes, and ham

A state audit accuses a Missouri sheriff’s office of “questionable buys” on booze, cigarettes, and a lot of ham.  

A state audit says the Ray County Sheriff’s Office, near Kansas City, misused thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to buy things like beer, cigarettes, 15 TVs and 76 hams. 

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick says nearly three-thousand dollars in missing money as well as more than 55-hundred dollars in questionable purchases were made by the Ray County Sheriff’s Office from 2018 to 2020. 

In addition, the audit found office personnel did not transmit more than 25-hundred dollars in conceal carry weapon permit fees and about 450-dollars in sex offender registry fees to the County Treasurer. 

In response, Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers says the expenses were made during a previous administration, under former Sheriff Garry Bush.