Gretchen Ellerby

Your money's missing. Grand jury to find out why.

Posted by

Walter Geiger

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Tuesday, November 30. 2010

Comments (33)

A spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reveals the case of missing taxpayer money involving former county employee Gretchen Ellerby has morphed from a civil matter into a criminal one.

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#1 anon on 11/30/10 at 07:12 AM

Thank you to Sheriff Waller for requesting the GBI to do an investigation. Now it is up to the DA to his job and get this case on the docket asp. This happened this past summer, so this should be on the docket before this year is out. Who gets the report on the investigation? Is this public knowledge? I also heard they did polygraph on employees of the commissioners office and Mr. Patterson. I also heard from an county employee that certain people failed the test. One was Mr. Patterson. I would like to know , how we as taxpayers can get the results and names of people that were polygraphed.

#1.1 Sheila Tolley on 11/30/10 at 08:12 AM

Is failing a polygraph significant? I am asking seriously, is it?

#1.1.1 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 08:55 AM

It cant be brought in at trial unless both sides agree. It can help lead investigators in the right direction.

#1.1.2 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 09:01 AM

If it's not. Why take it then. DUH!!!

#1.1.3 anon on 11/30/10 at 09:12 AM

I guess it would depend on which questions they were asked, that the polygraph showed they passed and the ones that showed deceit.

#1.1.3.1 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 10:51 AM

i would not agree to take a polygraph. they are not admissable in court. perhaps law enforcement tries to use them for entrapment purposes.

#1.1.4 just wondering on 11/30/10 at 10:16 AM

look at what the polygraph did for Jimmy Johnson they dont take them serious do they Sheila

#1.1.5 pearlene at h.h on 11/30/10 at 10:26 AM

do you ever shut up....you need to be donnaized

#1.1.5.1 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 08:59 PM

that sounds like a death threat to me.

#1.1.6 anon on 11/30/10 at 08:11 PM

I think it could be significant to an investigator, when he questions people seperately and they come up with different stories.

#1.2 do da on 12/01/10 at 02:15 PM

waller had nothing to do with this investigation remember he is part of those good ole boys matthews and his bunch he would have helped cover it if he was in charge unlike our former sherriff he took no crap off the good ole boys

#1.2.1 anon on 12/01/10 at 02:48 PM

You are wrong. The sheriff has to be the one to call in the GBI. They were over the investigation, forensic audit, and polygraphs. Now it is up to the grand jury and DA to prosecute and do their job. I hope everyone in the Commissioner's Office that works under Wayne Patterson is called to testify. I also hope they get Mr. Patterson and Chairman Matthews on the witness stand. It ought to be interesting to see how many times they plead the 5th. That is the only way , the county tax payers will know what is really going on with our tax money and who is responsible for what.

#1.2.1.1 do da on 12/02/10 at 07:28 AM

sorry you are wrong the district attorney can request the GBI for any type of investigation or in some cases the GBI can come in on there own or maybe the attorney general office can call on the GBI.there are other circumstances where other officials in this state can request GBI

#1.2.1.1.1 anon on 12/02/10 at 03:13 PM

Check again.

#2 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 07:41 AM

Poor Gretchen.

#2.1 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 08:40 AM

Poor taxpayers....

#2.2 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 08:58 AM

Yea she is poor now without those padded checks

#3 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 08:57 AM

She should cut a deal in exchange for testifying about all the other crap that went on.

#3.1 anon on 11/30/10 at 09:57 AM

You are right. I am sure that is why she has been handled very carefully by Jay Matthews. Truth has it, she passed her polygraph. Maybe someone higher up did ok for her to give herself a raise. There is a fox in the hen house and it looks like all of this is coming to a head and no matter what certain people do to stop the truth from coming out, it is about to hit the fan. Maybe it is "packing your bags and cleaning out your desk" time for certain people.

#3.1.1 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 09:58 PM

"Maybe it is "packing your bags and cleaning out your desk" time for certain people".......

We can only hope.... just remember, Gretchen may not be innocent, but someone had to sign her checks.... so they either knew about the raise or they were not paying attention ... in either case they are just as guilty.

#3.1.1.1 anon on 12/01/10 at 01:54 PM

I agree. For someone to give themself that big of a pay increase and no one to catch it tells you alot. That someone did o.k. it or someone was not doing their job in checking the payroll before it was distributed to the employees. It seems like the local county government is ran by County Adminstrator and County Chairman and the board of commissioners are the"yes" men. When you can't catch a mistake like that in the payroll, tells me local government might be too big and they need to cut back so they can manage better. Or get an outside auditor to come in once a month and check "all the bank accounts", payroll, and "General Fund". Oh yes, let's not forget about "splost".

#3.2 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 10:04 AM

thats exactly what I was thinking!

#4 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 10:35 AM

the bad thing is she's not one of the good ol boys (pippins).the good thing is she's black and we have a guttless DA.just scream racism and they will roll over and run.

#5 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 11:13 AM

Can the grand jury indict all the people who did not notice her "raise" for being stupid?

#6 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 02:57 PM

Homey the Clown knows that is is just another plan....

#7 Anonymous on 11/30/10 at 10:45 PM

HOMEY DON'T PLAY DAT

#8 cats on 12/01/10 at 04:45 AM

She was given the chance to make restitution and didn't so this is now a criminal matter.
Honestly, I feel that some people in this county whose salaries are paid by the taxpayers hold us in contempt.
I don't appreciate that.
It was the Herald-Gazette's open records request that brought this to light. Had that request not been made, how much would have been fleeced from us taxpayers?
I guess I will look to Walter to protect my interests from now on, since our city and county officials cannot be trusted.

#9 Anonymous on 12/01/10 at 09:45 AM

Maybe she stole the money? With fire and ems fee.

#10 GM on 12/01/10 at 10:37 AM

Ain't it funny that government steals from all the people all year long and could care less about what the people think about it. But let one person try and do the same thing and the government gets all bent out of shape.

#11 Anonymous on 12/01/10 at 12:20 PM

And we pay Robin whatever her current last name is big bucks to account for our tax dollars, along with Mr Patterson, our esteemed Commissioners and anyone else that touches our hard earned money. We are entitled to know and have every dime returned. Amen??

#11.1 Anonymous on 12/02/10 at 01:11 PM

what do you mean "whatever her current last name is"? do you not know who you are accusing or are you just angry and making blind accusations? some of the folks posting here are not very well informed at all,please do some research before posting!!

#12 anon on 12/02/10 at 03:21 PM

Google -- Sheriff requests GBI investigation-- and see how many sheriffs and police chiefs have requested investigations from GBI/ Education is a great thing , isn't it?

#13 Sheila Tolley on 02/13/11 at 09:28 AM

Your money's missing. Grand jury to find out why.

A spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reveals the case of missing taxpayer money involving former county employee Gretchen Ellerby has morphed from a civil matter into a criminal one.

That worked out well for us. DON'T YOU THINK?

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