Ex-Turin town judge: 'doesn't sound good'

TURIN — A former Turin town judge is skeptical of the rationale given for an apparent $37,000 shortfall in the town court fund.

"It's one of those things where you hope it's nothing major, but it doesn't sound good," said Gregg R. Ielfield, who served as town justice from 1996 through 1999.

A state comptroller's audit report released Thursday identified an apparent $37,199 shortfall in Turin's town court account from last year. Auditors determined that, as of Oct. 27, 2009, the Town Court's cash on hand was $12,123, while its reported liabilities — such as bail held on pending cases and unremitted fines and fees — were $49,322.

The comptroller's report blames Town Justice James E. Chase, Mr. Ielfield's successor, and town councilmen for lack of proper oversight and record-keeping. It also blasts two councilmen, who were not named, for falsely certifying with the state Unified Court System that they had conducted a 2008 annual audit of the court's financial operations, even though they hadn't.

Findings from the audit — covering the period of Jan. 1, 2008, through Oct. 27, 2009 — were referred to the Lewis County district attorney's office.

In a response by letter to the comptroller's office, Mr. Chase said that in attempting to clear up old cases from prior judges, he refunded bail and other fees through the court account. However, proof of that was lost through poor record-keeping and misplacement or destruction of old records during the town's move into its current office in 2005, he wrote.

He added that he hadn't been provided with guidance on how to properly set up an account or received much financial training during in-service programs.

Mr. Chase on Thursday said he was unable to comment further, since there is an ongoing investigation.

Mr. Ielfield said he closed out his court account when he stepped down from the position but stayed around for an extra month to help Mr. Chase with the transition. The former judge also questioned why records would have been discarded in the office move and suggested that many should be stored digitally.

Fines and surcharges collected are to be sent to the state on the 10th day of each month, although bail money is retained in the court account, Mr. Ielfield said.

"It's real simple accounting," he said.

Mr. Ielfield acknowledged that he left the judgeship before the advent of the moe.down music festival, a Labor Day weekend event at Snow Ridge Ski Area at which many drug-related arrests occurred. At least 11 such arrests were made at last year's moe.down, which has been replaced this year with this weekend's Snow Ridge Jam Fest.

While that would result in large amounts of bail money, it still shouldn't cause such a large discrepancy, Mr. Ielfield said. "I just don't know how you can get that far in the negative," he said.

Mr. Ielfield said his primary aims in speaking out are to clear previous justices and to encourage residents to hold town officials accountable for clearing up the situation.

"The town taxpayers should not be liable for something like this," he said.