County Judge: Theft exceeded $1 Million
JONESBORO, AR – The Craighead County clerk has been arrested for theft of public funds, several press releases confirmed Monday morning.
District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington announced Monday the arrest of Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday.
“This morning, officers from the Arkansas State Police and Craighead County Sheriff’s Department arrested Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday,” Ellington said. “I have instructed my deputies to immediately file felony theft charges against him. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Grant DeProw will file a Felony Information charging multiple counts of Theft of Property in excess of $25,000 and one count of Abuse of Office, all of which are Class B felonies. He will also file a petition asking the Circuit Court to remove Holliday from office today.”
A press release from Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said that County Clerk Holliday personally received funds exceeding $1 million – since January of this year.
Ellington gave further details on the case.
“On Thursday, June 25th, I received an urgent phone call to meet with Craighead County Judge Marvin Day and auditors with the Division of Legislative Audit. The auditors had obtained and examined bank records that raised suspicion of theft of county funds from an account Holliday maintained in his official capacity as county clerk. We then met with the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division and requested they open the investigation which led to Holliday’s arrest. The investigation is ongoing and further details are limited.”
Holliday will be held in the custody of Sheriff Marty Boyd at the Craighead County Detention Center to await his first court appearance and bond hearing.
All persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law
press release
Press Release from County Judge Marvin Day
On or about June 25, 2020, County officials became aware of suspected activity regarding funds in the Payroll Account of Craighead County.
Craighead County Judge and Sheriff contacted the office of legislative audit to investigate the activity.
By and through the request of the Craighead County Sheriff’s office, 2nd Judicial Prosecuting Attorney requested the Arkansas State Police commence a criminal investigation. The investigation revealed that Kade Holliday, County Clerk of Craighead County, personally received monies in excess of one million dollars since January 2020.
The matter is currently under investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
Any further questions should be directed to the 2nd Judicial Prosecuting Attorneys Office
Are they serious he steals over 1 million dollars in 6 months of our money “the taxpayers” and they’re only going to charge him with Theft of Property in excess of $2500 a class B felony why are they not getting the the FBI involved because of how much he stole and using electronic devices during the crime and not pressing federal charges? I guess that’s the good ol boys system for you.
It may be just the opposite. Others may have things that they don’t want uncovered. I don’t know what the truth is but it may not be what it appears.
I bet the courts will let him out on a OR or a very low bound.
I bet Kade uses the excuse that he used the money for the Professorship and Scholarship thing as ASU.
They only charged Kade Holliday with Theft of Property – Lost,Mislaid,Delivered by Mistake are they freaking kidding he stole our money and that’s all he gets this is bullshit.
This is extremely troubling. People above him were extremely negligent.
This is just for 2020 and only for funds in the payroll account, literally the WORST possible choice to steal from. Biggest, easiest paper trail to follow. I shudder to think how much more it really could be. I also am concerned that those deposits were not traced and did not have supporting evidence of a proven transfer into the proper account by the Chief Executive Officer. You can never assume the numbers on the page are indeed correct. That needs to be proven every.single.time.
I do not see how he was able to get away with this so long on his own. Banks are supposed to review big transfers, there should be two signature releases on all payments, and someone DIFFERENT than the person handling the funds should be reconciling the bank accounts. Running a Business 101.