LITTLE ROCK — With two months left in office, Miller County Sheriff Linda Rambo has been asked to resign amid an investigation into misuse of a county truck.
Rambo is accused of letting a jailer use a sheriff's office truck and an inmate to help a relative move, Brent Haltom, prosecutor in Miller County, said Wednesday.
While Haltom said he hopes Rambo "does the right" thing and resigns by Friday, that won't necessarily get the first-term sheriff off the hook for criminal charges.
"This could be a theft of county property," Haltom said, adding that after her troubledtwo years in office this situation was the "straw that broke the camel's back."
Rambo told the Texarkana Gazette that she didn't know she was breaking thelaw when she gave Sgt. Dolly Simmons permission to use the truck and an inmate from the Arkansas Department of Correction to help Simmons' sister move last week. The paper reported that Simmons is married to Rambo's nephew.
"I didn't think a thing about it because I hadn't read that law book," Rambo told the pa-per. "Hell, I don't know all the rules."
The Arkansas State Police opened an investigation, and Haltom said "we're going to pursue every avenue that's available to us."
Rambo lost her bid for re-election after facing fierce criticism over problems at the jail, including numerous inmate escapes and disciplinary problems with guards, several of whom have been charged criminally. State police veteran Ron Stovall will takeoffice in January.
If Rambo resigns or is removed from office through court action, the Quorum Court will appoint someone to run the office until the end of the year, Haltom said.
Haltom said "mismanagement and not knowing what you're doing is different than this last episode."
Rambo told the Texarkana paper that she now realizes she made a mistake with the use of the sheriff's office truck.
"I'll just take this blame and go on," Rambo was quoted as saying. "I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of."
The incident also may have violated state prison rules regarding prisoners who are sent to county jails to do chores under a program that rewards good behavior, said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Department of Correction.
"Our policy on the [Act] 309 program is you cannot use those inmates for private benefit," she said.
She said the coordinator for the program is investigating the situation. If the jail is found in violation, a warning could be issued, or the county could be banned from participating in the program.
On Wednesday, Tyler said there were no longer any Act 309 prisoners in the Miller County jail.
The inquiry into the truck use is the second active state police investigation into the sheriff's office, Haltom said. It's still unclear who is responsible for doctoring a document to say a judge ordered an inmate released from jail, Haltom said.
That inmate, Joshua J. Gossett, was allowed to walk out of jail in July and failed to appear for his next court date, prompting an investigation. Haltom said the policies were so lax at the sheriff's office that any number of people could have had access to the system to alter the record.
Gossett has since been sentenced for theft and other charges.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 20 on 10/30/2008