Drew County Circuit Clerk on Leave, Pending Audit & Criminal Investigation
September 21st, 2012 by Joe Burgess
Drew County Circuit Clerk Pat Savage Montgomery submitted a letter announcing her immediate leave of absence to Drew County officials, this morning.
Prosecuting Attorney Thomas D. Deen declined to release specifics at this time, but said, “An audit and a criminal investigation are underway concerning the Drew County Circuit Clerk’s office.” “I expect that the audit findings will be presented at the next meeting of the General Assembly’s Legislative Audit Committee.”
The process will likely reconvene in October.
The letter stated, “”I submit to you a letter for leave of absence for the office of Drew County Circuit Clerk. It has been my honor to serve Drew County in this office. This will be effective immediately.” The letter was sent to Drew County Judge Damon Lampkin, County Attorney Cliff Gibson, and Prosecuting Attorney Tomas Deen.
When Mlive spole to Judge Lampkin, he hadn’t seen the leatter, yet.
County Attorney Cliff Gibson told MLive, “The auditor’s process has to run it’s course, and we (the county) look forward to receiving their report.”
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I hope everyone remembers that it is an INVESTIGATION and that even if there was wrong doing in the office, it doesn’t neccessarily mean it was PAT.
Amen, innocent until proven guilty
Well said Bertha Mae, this goes back to principles of our judicial system. A person is innocent until proven guilty and should be treated as such.
Pat did the honorable thing as an elected official by getting out of the way and letting the Auditors and Prosecutor do their job. This way, she allowed them full access to her office and her files. Whomever in the office who is responsible for this (and let’s remember not to point fingers as no one has been accused of anything) will be found and held accountable. As the previous comments have stated, we have a legal system who accounts everyone innocent until the facts say otherwise and they are proven guilty. Pat, there are people out there who are standing behind you and your staff as you go through this ordeal, and we support the Circuit Clerk’s office one-hundred percent as each staff member has to endure this investigation.
Let me follow up to my last comment. The “office,” as a whole, is being investigated, thus my comment for whomever in the “office” responsible. Let’s remember it could be someone outside the office as well. The investigation will tell.
It doesn’t mean she is innocent either. Why you take a leave of absence if you did nothing wrong?
Just saying……..I have known Pat Savage Montgomery , our circut clerk, all of her life.She has always been one of the sweetest, kindest people and a person of integrity. Pat we think of you as one of our kids like we do so many kids in Drew County. Pat we love you and believe in you. May God bless you! Bro. Bud and Nancy Lemons.
All parties are innocent until proven guilty!
HA HA , these comments are hilarious ! Only in Monticello , AR
I agree,she would have not stepped down if she had something to hide.The ones posting how great she is will continue to make excuses if she is found to have done something wrong.People are just blinded these days.
Okay, remember “innocent until proven gulity” when someone that’s not associated with the courthouse does something and gets investigated
I went to school with Pat and still see her on occasion. BELIEVE in innocent until proven guilty. This doesn’t sound like something the Pat I know would ever do. I’ve had some quack psycho file a bunch of false charges against me and I’m totally innocent of all charges, but I still have to go to court and hire a lawyet even tho she committed perjury by filing a false police report against me. Pat is a sweet, kind and honest person. Don’t automatically assume she’s guilty.
GET BACK IN YOUR OFFICE WITH YOUR HEAD UP HIGH.Don’t back down fight if you know you are right!!! If you did wrong keep running.. jmo
I think it is important to remember that neither Pat, nor anyone in her office has been accused of anything. Also, it is important to remember that a lot of different areas in government are connected to the Circuit Clerk’s office, so just because the investigation is taking place in that office, doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with that office, its personnel or its practices. It could be an office that is tied closely to the Clerk’s office. We don’t and won’t know what is behind all of this until the findings are complete. Until then, I think it is important we support our County government. They get “beat up” enough as it is.
Pat – If you are innocent, return to work and fight! If you are guilty, resign and ask for a plea agreement. Then issue an apology to the voters of Drew County. You are innocent until proven guilty. But save the tax payers a lot of cash we do not have.
This breaks my heart to think of the outcome but everyone is only human so don’t cast stones until you know the entire findings of the investigation. It is hard to see and hear people “beating up” Mrs. Pat or anyone else in that office or any offices that work closely with the Circuit Clerk until they know the truth. An investigation is just that they are looking into any allegations of wrong doings. You can look at it 2 ways 1) you have some people defending her saying they know she didn’t do it OR 2) people that are saying she did it and don’t have a clue what the actual findings are yet.
Instead of saying no way she did this or yes she did it just wait until the actual report is finalized because one side is going to be right the other wrong. I would have never dreamed she would have done anything like this so I am hoping it comes out like that but even though she is such a sweet caring lady I cant and wont say she did it or she didn’t do it, I don’t know so will sit back and wait to hear the final word on the investigation.
There is a third side of this: funds were mistakenly misspent. People make honest mistakes. There could be receipts lost etc. Until we know for certain, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
She took a leave of absence, she didn’t step down. There is a difference! That says to me that she has nothing to hide. If she did, she would have stayed and tried to cover things up. Instead, she is stepping aside for the time being to let the auditors do their job!
As sad as it is to think what this could mean if you will read all the articles about this you will see that Mrs. Montgomery sent a letter and it reads “I submit to you a letter for a leave of absence for the office of Drew County Circuit Clerk. It has been my honor to serve Drew County in this office. This will be effective immediately.” this was sent to Thomas Deen PA, Judge Lampkin and the county attorney Cliff Gibson. All we can do at this point is hope it does not conclude the way the letter portrays the outcome to be.
By the way the auditors were finished doing their part of the job before she took her leave now it is in the hands of the Arkansas State Police. I hope the way the letter reads is 100% misleading and she will return to her position as Drew County Circuit Clerk. There will be a lot of people disappointed if they have defended her only to hear something else. My prayers are for her either way as she is a very nice person.