Felony theft charges filed regarding missing shelter funds

Thursday, September 3, 2015

A seven-month investigation into missing funds for the Putnam County Animal Shelter yielded three felony charges and one misdemeanor against two men, the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office announced Thursday.

Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter has filed two Level 6 felonies and one Class A misdemeanor against Ron Brown, 46, of Crawfordsville, and one Level 6 felony against Ben O'Hair of Greencastle.

Brown, who had helped the county pursue grants for restarting the shelter, is charged with theft and two counts of deception.

O'Hair, a local heating and cooling contractor who did work on the shelter building, is charged with theft.

The investigation began in early March when an internal accounts audit at the Putnam County Sheriff's Department revealed irregularities in the shelter fund.

At that point, the investigation was turned over the Indiana State Police and Indiana State Board of Accounts.

In a probable cause affidavit completed earlier this week, ISP Det. Dontonio Nibbs outlined his findings.

Nibbs' investigation revealed that the Putnam County Auditor's Office approved payments to Brown -- specifically to R. Brown Engineering, LLC/Ronald Brown -- totaling $33,286.10.

Checks were written directly to Brown, as he claimed they were reimbursements for payments he had already made to contractors.

However, most of the money was not paid to contractors, the only exception being $5,740 to O'Hair, a portion of the total the county owed his business.

According to Nibbs' report, Brown conceded as much during the investigation.

"Ronald Brown acknowledged he turned in claim vouchers to the Putnam County Auditor's Office and received payment," Nibbs wrote. "Brown also acknowledged he paid O'Hair some money, but did not pay any other vendors and kept the money."

The claim checks from Putnam County were deposited into a bank account under the name R. Brown Engineering GRP, but no corresponding checks to contractors were written.

In the matter of the deception charge, Brown was apparently taking advantage of the confusion surrounding who was in charge of the animal shelter funds during its reorganization period. The probable cause affidavit noted Hallett told ISP and SBA investigators that it is normally an agency's director who signs to authorize claims.

On the forms in question, Brown signed his own name, even though Brien Holsapple was at the time the director of animal control.

Nibbs' report also states that a number of the Brown's claims were submitted and approved as emergency claims, even though they did not qualify as one the enumerated reasons the county can issue an emergency claim.

The indiscretion of which O'Hair is accused did not come until after the investigation of Brown commenced. On Monday, March 2, the PCSD Chief Deputy Phil Parker approached the Putnam County Commissioners about paying the four vendors who had not received payment for work at the shelter -- GT Systems, HOP Security, Barry Grimes and O'Hair Heating and Cooling.

The commissioners approved the payments on that day, but the subsequent investigation revealed that O'Hair had already been paid the $5,740 by Brown, but he did not inform the county of the previous payments.

Instead, the county wrote a check to O'Hair in the amount of $22,849.81.

The charge springs from the $5,740 that O'Hair was apparently paid for twice.

Bookwalter told the Banner Graphic that his office was requesting a warrant for Brown's arrest, while O'Hair will be summoned to court.

While no further criminal charges will be filed in this case, the State Board of Accounts will still issue a report with its findings. Issues likely to be addressed include the improper use of emergency claims, issuing claims not signed by an agency director and the double payment of county claims.

"These issues will most likely be addressed by the State Board of Accounts in their final audit report," Bookwalter said, "and they will decide if any civil penalties will be imposed."

Dates will be set for Brown and O'Hair in Putnam Circuit Court after the warrant and summons have been served.

Comments
View 15 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Who Let The Dogs Out!!! Who Who Who...

    Set the animals free.

    -- Posted by DefiantToo on Thu, Sep 3, 2015, at 8:44 PM
  • Why is Ben O'Hair only getting a summons? Come on Putnam County!! I hope his business fails after this ordeal!!

    -- Posted by wuddat on Thu, Sep 3, 2015, at 11:13 PM
  • Before you judge Ohair you should get your facts straight. If you don't know the situation then you should keep your mouths shut. Bad things happen to good people and this brown guy is the one at fault. So shut up if you don't know.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 8:16 AM
  • Maybe you'll have a business one day "wuddat" and something like this will happen to you and then you will see how this stuff happens. Ohair has a good business and does good work for people at very reasonable prices. So before you judge get to know him and his family a little.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 8:19 AM
  • O' Hair has done a lot for this county and has worked hard to build a good business - with all the "funny accounting" going on with the shelter sounds like we should all keep mouths shut until facts are straight- could be an oversight or an accounting mistake - law and judge should be only ones to place blame- not public- and newspaper might want to wait til facts come out for sure

    -- Posted by talkymom3 on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 9:49 AM
  • Well said talkymom3. At least there is one other smart person posting on here and sounds like you know that ohair has done good things.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 10:09 AM
  • LOL not sure how smart I am but you just need common sense- which most people don't have!

    -- Posted by talkymom3 on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 10:36 AM
  • and thanks for the compliment!

    -- Posted by talkymom3 on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 10:36 AM
  • First of all this article is somewhat confusing. I remember reading when hairs heating was made to wait in their check for months because of this brown person....ohairs went in and did a great job fixing up that decreped old shelter. There are too many chiefs in charge (or so they think they are chiefs). Nobody helped ohairs heating when they were out thousands of dollars and waiting on their more ney. That was fine then I guess. Shame on the court system. They must be wanting to up their court hearings. Not sure what is going on in this county but it sure does smell like what hog farmers deal with on a daily basis. Next time you need work on your heating and cooling wuddat....I hope you are charged a small fortune. Ohairs have done so much to help this community out. You should be ashamed of yourself by the way....did I see ohairs heating and cooling working out at the humane society a week or so ago??? Maybe the courthouse ahould keep better records instead of going out to move their cars or smoking all of the time. LEARN THE FACTS PEOPLE BEFORE YOU START

    BASHING..SOMETHING LIKE THIS COULD

    HAPPEN TO YOU. NEVER JUDGE. JUST START VOTING THE BRIGHT WAY IN THE NEXT ELECTION. AND ONCE AGAIN LEARN THE FACTS.......

    -- Posted by canttakeitanymore on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 11:12 AM
  • STEALING FROM A HUMANE SHELTER......HOW PATHETIC IS THAT? NO WONDER THE SHELTER COULDN'T STAY OPEN WITH PEOPLE STEALING THE MONIES FROM THEM. I HOPE THEY PROSECUTE BOTH OF THEM TO THE FULLEST. JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS A "GOOD GUY" DOESN'T MEAN THEY WON'T COMMIT A CRIME OR DO SOMETHING THAT IS WRONG...GET REAL, PEOPLE.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 12:30 PM
  • If I remember the humane shelter couldnt make it on its own. The shelter was already closed for several years before they decided to try and reopen. Thats when the COUNTY hired this joker brown. THEN hired the heating and cooling co.To come in and fix all the heating and air. So dont you DARE say that ohairs stole money. Check the timeline queen. YOU ALSO HAVE TO HOLD THE CLERKS OFFICE ACCOUNTABLE AS WELL AS THE COMMISSIONERS. GO BACK AND CHECK THE MINUTES FROM THOSE MEETINGS. Remember the timeline. Check your facts. And maybe you should go to some of the humane shelters board meetings and find out what is really happening. Frint news today. Down the road you still wont say your sorry. You must not have been brought up in the old days!!!

    -- Posted by canttakeitanymore on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 12:47 PM
  • Queen 53 you have no clue what you are talking about. You just jump on the band wagon with others who have no clue. You people who are bashing ohairs are ridiculous. Ohair has commited no crime here. It all Lays on this brown guy. Ohair had to wait for months to get paid for the equipment and his labor for the job he has done out there. You'll pay one day for judging him and not knowing the facts queen53. Get a clue.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 2:39 PM
  • When all this comes to a head I am sure all of you haters out there are going to see that this all stems back to our local county government. The county offices never want to take any blame for anything that goes wrong. They just want to try and lay blame on someone else so they don't look bad. Seems to me this could go back to the board that approves these things. Maybe there is a HUGE problem with some people on county boards in this little town.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Fri, Sep 4, 2015, at 10:51 PM
  • A huge thank you hoes out tonight to Ohairs heating and cooling for allowing myself and my dad to access some parts to fix the AC drain for our unit. No place in town was open at this time of night and any other hearing and cooling place would of charged a fortune to come out for a 10 minute fix and tried to up sell more parts. Thanks Ohair Heating and Cooling.

    -- Posted by Clifford on Sun, Sep 6, 2015, at 9:14 PM
  • "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

    Glad Clifford got his AC unit fixed but that does little to establish innocence.

    -- Posted by daisy48 on Tue, Sep 8, 2015, at 3:22 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: