A former Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office secretary at the center of an internal investigation last year has been charged in Freeborn County District Court with four felony counts of theft for reportedly taking more than $3,000 from the department.

According to court documents, Kelley Ann Davenport, 37, who worked in the civil processing department of the Sheriff’s Office, allegedly took a series of checks made payable to the Sheriff’s Office and cashed them for her own use.

A warrant is out for her arrest because her current address is unknown.

Davenport began with the Sheriff’s Office in 2007 and resigned in February 2010 amid the allegations of misconduct.

When she was employed with the Sheriff’s Office, Davenport managed the accounting books of the department’s deposit funds and checks, along with drafting checks as payment for funds collected for the benefit of third parties by the sheriff’s civil process office.

“It was a specific duty of Ms. Davenport to account for all monies, cash and checks received as payment by the records department of the Sheriff’s Office,” court records state.

This involved making periodic deposits of accumulated cash with the Freeborn County Treasurer’s Office or of checks received for copies of records or services at US Bank of Albert Lea.

Court documents state the four counts of felony theft included instances where Davenport allegedly cashed checks at US Bank written by four different entities to the Sheriff’s office:

• Two checks from Christian & Peterson, totaling $1,430.

• One check from Peterson, Fram & Bergman for $195.

• One check from Waseca County for $195

• Three checks from Metro Legal Services Inc., totaling $1,885.

The alleged incidents reportedly took place from May 1, 2009, through Feb. 1, 2010.

Court documents state allegations were brought to the attention of former Chief Deputy Gene Arnold from Jan. through early Feb. 2010 by the record’s department staff who noted that the cash register in their department had not been balanced. There had also been people calling the Sheriff’s Office asking why their checks, issued several months prior, had not been cashed.

Court records state Arnold met with Davenport two times asking why the deposits had not been made and requested she print out a current deposit sheet showing deposits made, along with the current balance.

When the information requested was reportedly not provided, Bob Kindler, a detective/supervisor at the time, went into Davenport’s office to audit or confirm the information that had been provided.

He reportedly discovered three envelopes in Davenport’s desk that contained checks written as payment to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, dating as far back as February 2009.

Arnold then reportedly took the envelopes to the sheriff, and found 96 checks issued in 2009 as payments to the city of Albert Lea in one envelope, 46 checks made out in 2009 as payments to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office in a second envelope, and another envelope, that was sealed, that contained $2 and 24 checks issued as payment for work performed or to be performed by the civil process department of the Sheriff’s Office in 2010.

When approached about the checks, Davenport reportedly told authorities she had been overwhelmed with work and had not had time to deposit the checks.

At that time she was placed on administrative leave, court documents state.

Authorities contacted the Freeborn County Treasurer’s Office to find out what deposits had been received from the Sheriff’s Office records department by Davenport, and only one deposit had been made in 2009 and none in 2010.

In an interview on Feb. 25, 2010, after Davenport resigned from her position, she was interviewed by Arnold, during which time she reportedly admitted stealing cash from the records department cash register. She was unsure of the total amount she had taken but wanted to repay it, according to the documents.

Payments from four specific entities became the focus of the investigation.

The checks had been cashed at US Bank and had been signed by Davenport and also had the stamp of then Sheriff Mark Harig. There was no record the money had been received by the Sheriff’s Office from the checks.

Harig stated his name had been on the checks “in the ordinary course of business, anticipating the funds represented by the checks” would be held in the Sheriff’s Office account at US Bank.

Davenport faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each of her charges.

Freeborn County Sheriff Bob Kindler declined to comment about the case when contacted Friday.