Opinion ID: 1855123
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The false deposit slip )

Text: One of the audits conducted by the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts covered the period October 1, 1992, through September 30, 1995. The audit was conducted in 1996, and the audit report was filed on November 22, 1996. That audit contained a charge-back against Judge Boggan in the amount of $24,364.55, due to deposit errors. The audit stated: This amount was paid by the official at the conclusion of the examination. A subsequent audit, conducted by Douglas Coates of the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, who had over 25 years' experience in the county audit division, revealed that the charge-back had not in fact been paid and that Judge Boggan had falsely represented that the payment had been made. In that audit, Coates made the following findings as to the payment of $23,000 of the charge-back: The official is charged with the unsettled bank account shortage from the prior examination. The settlement of this shortage was misrepresented by the Judge of Probate at the conclusion of the prior examination. The $23,000.00 check for the settlement of the majority of the bank account shortage for the prior examination, was deposited on August 24, 1996, and was withdrawn on the same day by an unnumbered counter check. This August 24, 1996 deposit was presented to the Examiners on September 6, 1996 for settlement of the majority of the bank shortage for the examination period ending date of September 30, 1995. The August 1996 bank statement was reported to be lost by [Judge Boggan] and was found several days later after repeated requests. After the bank statement was reviewed, and the $23,000.00 withdrawal found, [Judge Boggan] explained that he withdrew these funds after consultation with his attorney. At trial, Coates said that in conducting an audit the examiner looks at the agency's records to see that the proper receipts are collected, are shown in bank books, and then are disbursed properly. The procedure includes reviewing bank records. In conducting the initial review, Coates saw that the August 1996 bank records were missing and that the bank statement could not be located. He made a request for the missing records and proceeded to review the records that were available. When he finished with the records that were available, Coates went to Judge Boggan and told him that he needed the August 1996 bank statement. When Coates told Judge Boggan that, if it was necessary to secure a copy in this manner, a copy of the statement could be obtained from the bank, Judge Boggan looked some more and then produced a photocopy of the missing bank record. When Coates received the photocopy of the missing bank record, he noticed a $23,000 deposit and a $23,000 withdrawal, with an unnumbered check, on the same day. This immediately caught his eye because usually the office used prenumbered checks and those numbers were shown on the bank statement. After Coates received the photocopy of the bank statement, Judge Boggan came to Coates and told Coates that he had made the $23,000 deposit, which represented the audit settlement, and had later in the same day withdrawn the same amount of funds on the advice of his lawyer. Coates also heard a later conversation between Judge Boggan and Butch Smith, the audit manager of this audit. Judge Boggan told Smith the same thing, that he had made a deposit of $23,000 into the probate account as part of the prior audit settlement, but then later in the day withdrew the funds. Later on the date of this second conversation, Judge Boggan produced the original bank records for August 1996. Based on these facts, Coates determined that $23,000 of the prior audit charge-back had not been paid. Coates, therefore, made a charge-back against Judge Boggan for the $23,000, which represented the majority of the audit settlement for the preceding audit. That settlement should have occurred in 1996. It was finally paid in 1998, at the settlement of the audit for the period October 1, 1995, through September 30, 1996. Charlotte Wilkerson, an employee of Camden National Bank, testified that she assisted Judge Boggan with both August 24, 1996, bank transactions. Wilkerson, at the time of the trial, had been employed by the bank for about six years. On August 24, Judge Boggan came to the window where Wilkerson was working as a teller. He brought with him two checks and two deposit slips. The first transaction involved a counter check made out to Boggan Insurance. The number on the check indicating the account on which the check was drawn is the account number of the probate judge's office account. This check was deposited into the Boggan Insurance account. This was transaction number three for the day at Wilkerson's window. The second counter check Judge Boggan had with him was made out to the Probate Office account and was written on the Boggan Insurance account. It was deposited into the Probate Office account. This transaction was listed as transaction number four for the day. According to Wilkerson, Judge Boggan conducted both transactions during the same visit to her window. Judge Boggan had only $180.60 in the Boggan Insurance account at the time of these transactions. On September 4, 1996, Judge Boggan presented the Probate-Office-account deposit slip, generated by these August 24, 1996, transactions, to the examiner to prove that he had settled $23,000 of the charge-back. On cross-examination, Judge Boggan admitted that when he presented the deposit slip to the examiner he knew that the amount had not been paid and that the deposit slip was a worthless piece of paper when he gave it to the examiner and represented that the matter had been settled.