IAPE Evidence Blog

First Coast News, firstcoastnews.com
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Colum­bia County, FL

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — It took nearly six years to track down, but a grand jury said it knows what hap­pened to more than $100,000 cash that dis­ap­peared from the sheriff’s office.

Today, the grand jury issued its deci­sion on the case of the miss­ing money. The report names legal assis­tant Pamela Foxx, employed by the Colum­bia County Sheriff’s Office start­ing in 2003.

The grand jury said Foxx, dur­ing three sher­iffs’ tenures, had 159 instances of remov­ing money from either the evi­dence room or the motor vehi­cle impound facil­ity adding up to over $277,000.

It stems back to the depar­ture of the in-house attor­ney for the sheriff’s office in 2004. Foxx was the legal assis­tant, super­vised by the attorney.

How­ever, when the attor­ney left, the replace­ment was a con­tract attor­ney in Tal­la­has­see, who didn’t pro­vide day-to-day supervision.

The grand jury decided Foxx was then able, with­out super­vi­sion, to go to the evi­dence room and sign for cash that was seized.

A look into her per­sonal bank account showed more than $100,000 that could not be explained, and Foxx even­tu­ally admit­ted to tak­ing $50 – 60,000. The grand jury said there is “ample evi­dence” to sug­gest she took more than $100,000.

The inves­ti­ga­tion began when two peo­ple requested their seized money back, but it was gone.

The comp­trol­ler found it had been removed by Foxx, so the sheriff’s office gave her 24 hours to get the money back. The report said Foxx was unable to explain what hap­pened, so she was put on leave.

That inci­dent led to a larger inves­ti­ga­tion involv­ing the Florida Depart­ment of Law Enforce­ment. Foxx even­tu­ally admit­ted to her role in tak­ing the money.

The grand jury con­sid­ers those actions embez­zle­ment. Its report cites a “fun­da­men­tally flawed” sys­tem that enabled any employee to sim­ply sign for money, though it does note the crim­i­nal is ulti­mately respon­si­ble for the action.

The report also points to poor adher­ence to pro­ce­dures, specif­i­cally in allow­ing the legal assis­tant to oper­ate with­out super­vi­sion from an attor­ney, and a poor job of check­ing on employ­ees, which could have led to a much quicker res­o­lu­tion of the problem.

The grand jury rec­om­mended the sheriff’s office make use of an out­side audi­tor to help track all seized funds.

Foxx was arrested on a grand theft charge.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org