Shawano County Sheriff Randy Wright said Thursday that an investigation into $1,000 in jail bond money that went missing in March has not turned up any evidence of wrongdoing.
“There’s nothing to substantiate that one way or the other,” he said.
Meanwhile, what happened to the money remains a mystery.
The incident has been the topic of a number of closed session discussions over the past several months by the Public Safety and Administrative committees.
In September, the Public Safety Committee discussed it openly when they voted to approve new procedures adopted by the jail for transporting bond money to the courthouse.
On Wednesday, the full Shawano County Board held a closed session discussion for more than an hour before voting 23-0 to have Wright, in conjunction with Corporation Counsel Tony Kordus, issue a public statement about what actions have been taken regarding the missing bail bond funds.
Supervisors Sandy Steinke, William Switalla, Bert Huntington and Rick Giese were not present for the vote.
In his statement, Wright said he informed the County Board that he had reviewed the matter and made sure that additional policies and procedures were put in place to avoid a similar incident in the future, including an annual audit to make sure all money is accounted for.
Wright said that “outside agencies, including Brown County and Marinette County law enforcement, were involved in investigating the matter to determine what transpired, but … no substantiated leads had been uncovered.”
Wright said the investigation is ongoing.
Details of the March incident have not been disclosed, but Wright said in an interview Thursday that the money was discovered missing when an envelope that should have contained it was opened at the Clerk of Courts office to be counted.
Wright said the envelope was taken out of a safe for delivery to the courthouse across the street.
“Nobody counted it coming out of the safe,” Wright said.
Members of the Public Safety Committee said they were surprised to hear how casually the transfer of money was being handled.
“I was floored when you told me you were just walking it over there in an envelope without money bags,” Huntington told Jail Administrator Steve Borroughs at the September meeting.
Borroughs outlined the jail’s new policy for Public Safety members, telling them there were now “fewer people involved in the transfer, more accountability, a lot more signatures and signing on the dotted lines, double-lock bank bags and so on.”
The committee instructed Borroughs to add a line to the policy stating that if another incident like the one in March occurs again, the committee has to be notified.
Borroughs said the jail had also considered a new policy of not accepting cash; only a credit card or money order.
“But how much reaction do we want over an unfortunate incident?” he said. “It’s the first time in 19 years. It’s tragic that it happened, unfortunate that it happened, whatever happened.”
Public Safety chair Mike McClelland said he liked the idea of not accepting cash, adding it would not be a major inconvenience to insist the bond payer go out and get a money order.
“If all it takes is for a man to go to Kwik Trip or his wife — he’s got to have cash anyway — if they take that same cash and get a money order, why is that wrong?” he said. “Look at all the hassle we’ve had over $1,000. We’ve had closed meetings and everything else.”
Huntington said the jail needs to keep the cash option.
“Somebody comes in at three in the morning to get his kid who got nailed for whatever, and they’re already mad as a wet hen, and they walk in here to bond that kid out with $500, are they gonna wanna go to Kwik Trip yet?” he said. “Bad idea.”
McClelland made a motion to go cashless, but it failed to get a second.
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