Former jailer disputes jail owes county funds

At a court meeting in March, Logan County Jailer Josh Toomey told members of the court, the county was owed funds from the jail. Toomey said, “It has come to my attention, learning from our financial group going through one of our contracts and vendors, there is some discrepancies in the numbers on what the county was given. Thus far, with what we have found, from our commission of earnings from CPC, Combined Public Communication, the county was shorted from the jail about $123,000.

Combined Public Communication is the communication provider that allows inmates the ability to make calls to family members from the facility where they are incarcerated.

Reading from the contract between the jail and CPC, Gregory said, “Combined Public Communications, LLC (CPC) with its principal place of business located in the Logan County Detention Center as the customer, gets the premium. Not the county. It mentions in there the customer is the one the contract is with, not the county. The county approved it. The county approves all contracts. But it’s the customer, and the customer is the Logan County Detention Center. There’s the contract. Clearly you didn’t read it. Or you didn’t understand it.”

Toomey had admitted in the March meeting that he was unsure of the reason for what he believed to be the discrepancy or for how long it happened. “For whatever reason, the commission totals the court was given by the past administration, and I’m not sure where the numbers came from, was only a portion of what should have been given,” said Toomey adding, “We’ve made up that difference on what we’ve found on those discrepancies so far.”

Toomey also said in March, “CPC would send the jail a check and they would cut another check over to the county. For whatever reason, instead of all that coming back over here to go into the general fund, it would stay in the jail’s account and they were only cutting a check for a portion of that. How they were getting that number (to pay the county), I’m not sure, but we’re trying to make it right.”

Logan County Judge-Executive Phil Baker told Gregory his name was never mentioned during the March meeting to which Gregory replied, “It doesn’t matter. Everyone knows who the jailer was.”

Gregory felt like he was being pinpointed in the March meeting when Magistrate Thomas Bouldin questioned if CPC “properly and fully paid the jailer from 2018 all the way through to 2023,” where Toomey replied to Bouldin, “Yes.” Magistrate Chris Wilcutt asked at the March meeting if this amount owed was over the course of the last year and Toomey replied, “No, this is since 2018.” Questioning Toomey further at the March meeting, Bouldin asked, “So they didn’t write you an additional check, you’re simply moving the funds that should have been reimbursed to the county to begin with?” Toomey replied, “Yes.”

Gregory said he had questions for jailer Toomey, who had to leave the April 25th meeting due to an emergency at the jail. He said he felt there was a misrepresentation of the facts. “I’m disappointed that the jailer is not here to answer these questions,” said Gregory. And to be quite honest, I feel slandered by it, by the jailer. For misrepresenting the facts. I just wanted to set the record straight.”

Magistrate Bouldin said he can’t speak for the jailer and can only speak for himself. “I understand the court, at least that court meeting interpretation that we had. I think we only discussed here and assured every body regardless where the funds were, they were always in the care and control of this court, there was never any misappropriation of funds, unaccounted for and that’s what I asked Amanda (Stratton), county treasurer, over and over again. You know, the funds have always been there, it’s just sitting there or sitting here,” said Bouldin

Gregory reminded the court that the jailer controls the canteen. “The statute’s very clear,” said Gregory. “They’re to stay in the jail commissary. The county cannot use commissary money.”

Gregory added that the money was directly deposited into the Logan County Detention Center’s banking account. “I never received any payment, check or anything from CPC directly to me. That money was deposited,” said Gregory. “Every auditor that came in our jail and audited us said that they wished all jails were as efficient at record keeping as what we were. And, I didn’t keep the records at all. I just oversaw the records, but my administrative assistant and others who worked there under my administration, I give them high praise because they did an excellent job. There was never a hiccup, whether it be a jail inspection or what. So I got high praise for my previous administration, who is no longer there, but uh, that’s all I got. Anybody else want to talk about anything while I’m here so you can talk to my face instead of behind my back?”

Gregory thanked the court for their time and said it was good seeing them all.

Logan County Fiscal Court tapes its meetings. They can be found on the YouTube channel under Logan County Fiscal Court and the date of the meeting.