BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) -- A mistake was made in the affidavit for search and seizure warrant used to search the Benton County Sheriff's Office on Nov. 5, a Bentonville attorney told 5NEWS Friday (Nov. 13).
The search was executed by Arkansas State Police on Nov. 5 in connection to an investigation into Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck, according to the warrant. Cradduck is accused of asking employees to backdate the employment of Gabriel Cox by two weeks so that he would be paid for time he wasn't actually employed by the sheriff's office, the warrant states.
The warrant affidavit states Cradduck's secretary, Myrna Scott, and Major Nathan Atchison of the Benton County Sheriff's Office reviewed Cox's personnel file Nov. 2 after the sheriff's office received an Arkansas Freedom of Information request and found a copy of a letter the sheriff had signed to pay Cox for two weeks of work he didn't complete.
The file was reviewed the following day before it was released and the letter in question had been removed, according to the affidavit. Atchison said Scott had told him she shredded the document, the affidavit states.
Attorney Shane Wilkinson said that is a mistake. According to Wilkinson, Scott came to him after seeing the information in the warrant affidavit. Wilkinson said Scott told him she didn't tell Atchison she shredded the letter. Atchison also said Scott never told him directly that she had shredded the letter, according to Scott's attorney. ASP is in possession of the original letter in question, the affidavit states.
"I don't know if that was lost in translation between the parties, I have no idea," Wilkinson said. "I just know that for her sake she wanted to make it clear to the public and to her family that she didn't do anything, that she would never do anything like that."
Wilkinson said he doesn't know why that information was included in the affidavit.
"One thing that somebody else ask me is, did anyone ever ask her to shred a document and no one ever asked her to shred a document." he said. "Not the sheriff, not anyone that works for him, not Major Atchison. No one ever asked her to shred anything."
Wilkinson said Scott has more than 20 years experience working in law enforcement and emergency services and feels that her name has been drug through the mud.
Two Benton County Sheriff's Office employees, Robin Holt and Jeremy Guyll, have filed grievances against the sheriff claiming they were both demoted because they cooperated with the ASP investigation. Their grievance hearings will be held Nov. 17.