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| KRISTI LYN GOSS |
Kristi Lyn Goss was an administrative assistant to Garland County Judge Rick Davis until May when an audit revealed suspicious activity by Goss.
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| RICK DAVIS - GARLAND COUNTY JUDGE |
Goss, 44, was set to stand trial
last Tuesday on six counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, including two
counts involving amounts more than $25,000, punishable by up to 20 years
in prison, and four counts involving amounts more than $5,000,
punishable by up to 10 years, but opted to plead guilty at a pretrial
hearing Monday.
Goss, who was arrested Oct. 25, 2016, and later
released on $50,000 bond, was represented by appointed public defender
Lee D. Short, of Little Rock. Special Prosecutor Jack McQuary, of the
state office of the prosecutor coordinator in Little Rock, represented
the state.
A gag order limiting pretrial publicity in the case was issued Oct. 26, 2016, and will remain active until sentencing. The Garland County Info blog has a nice post about the shenanigans relating to that. You can view it by clicking here.
Goss
had been employed by Garland County since 2004, starting under former
County Judge Larry Williams, and was officially terminated on June 3,
2016. She had reportedly left her position at the end of May 2016 after
the fraud allegations came to light.
Former Prosecuting Attorney
Terri Harris filed the charges against Goss directly to circuit court
and told The Sentinel-Record at the time of filing there had been
"insinuations" that the county judge's office was under investigation
and she was "dragging her feet," which she stressed was not true.
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| TERRI HARRIS |
She
said all county employees "fully cooperated" with the investigation and
"no one else other than the person we have charged is implicated in any
wrongdoing with the use of the card."
County Judge Rick Davis
issued a statement at the time of Goss' arrest noting she was an
employee he "inherited" and when the financial irregularities were
discovered he immediately notified the credit card company, state
Legislative Audit, the prosecuting attorney, the sheriff, and the county
attorney to request an investigation.
"The termination process
for this employee was initiated according to the steps outlined by
counsel from the county attorney and county policy," Davis said in the
statement.
"I hope for swift justice in this situation and hope a
message has been sent to all that any and all misconduct and
noncompliance with county policy and the law will not be tolerated and
appropriate actions will always be taken to bring justice," he said.
According
to the affidavit filed by ASP Special Agent David Moss, who was
assigned the case July 1, 2016, Goss fraudulently charged approximately
$200,000 worth of items, including personal bill payments, to a Garland
County credit card that was obtained in December 2011.
Garland
County Comptroller Susan Ashmore discovered the discrepancies in May
2016 after Goss was not paying county bills on time and "not executing
her duties in a timely manner." Legislative Auditor Jimmy Locke
discovered 3,722 charges made on the card between December 2011 and May
2016 and confirmed $70,523.64 in personal purchases made by Goss using
subpoenaed business records.
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| SUSAN ASHMORE - GARLAND COUNTY COMPTROLLER |
Locke also identified $92,074.48 in
additional purchases suspected to be personal in nature, based on the
names of the businesses where the purchases were made. The total amount
of unauthorized purchases was $162,598.
Some of the confirmed
personal purchases listed in the affidavit included payments to Entergy
for her electric bills, to AT&T for her cellphone bills, tickets to
Arkansas Razorback games, car payments, her personal real estate taxes,
hotel gift cards, a diamond bracelet, sequin throw pillows and a tuxedo
for her dog.
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| GOSS' DOG |
On Aug. 31, 2016, Moss interviewed Davis, who told
him Goss had worked for the county for 11 to12 years before she was
terminated and was responsible for ordering and purchasing IT-type
equipment for the county, as well as paying various bills. She would
purchase the items using the county credit card account number, while
the actual card was kept by Mary Culpepper, chief of staff to Davis, who
was Goss' immediate supervisor.
Davis said when he was informed
by Ashmore about some of the county bills not being paid on time and the
outstanding balance on the credit card, he and Culpepper spoke to Goss.
After further investigation revealed the personal and unauthorized
purchases made by Goss, he contacted Harris and Legislative Audit.
Cathy
Gaylene Tankersley, who handles accounts payable for the county, told
Moss she was always having a problem with Goss' claims balancing out
with the submitted invoices. She said Goss "would always come up with an
excuse" and would bring her several claims and "always want her to rush
them through due to them being past due."
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| CATHY GAYLENE TANKERSLEY |
On Aug. 31, 2016, Moss
went to Goss' residence to interview her, but she was not home. He spoke
to her on the phone and she agreed to meet with him the next day, but
she later told him she had obtained two attorneys, one from Little Rock
and one from Hot Springs, and would not speak to him without them. She
would not identify the attorneys.
Goss will be sentenced in November.
Goss and her husband Don Goss, were also arrested on drug charges shortly after she left county employment. They were arrested near the Garland County Courthouse.
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| GOSS WAS LISTED AS A BEING A MALE - TYPO OR TRANSGENDER? |
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| DON GOSS |
In court filings in the drug case, Goss was found to be indigent. Good luck to the county ever getting any of that $347k back.
