Beard pleads guilty

PRESCOTT – Connie Beard, former administrative assistant at the Prescott Police Department and City Hall plead guilty to charges of theft over $25,000 and tampering with public records Monday.

Beard’s case was scheduled to go to trial Monday and possibly last all week. However, she had her attorney enter a plea of guilty to both charges and agreed to pay the money back. Initially the amount thought to be missing was $38,000, but further investigation show the amount to be $32,000. This is to be paid back by the time she comes back for sentencing in 30 days.

The state will make its recommendation for punishment at that time. Beard could get up to 20 years on the theft charge and 3-10 on the record tampering charges.

A legislative audit in 2018 showed $38,078 mission from accounts with the PPD over a period of Feb. 18, 2016 through Dec.31, 2016. The purpose of the audit was to determine if funds were being deposited in the proper accounts and if the internal control over the PPD’s receipting and depositing process were adequate. During the audit, records for Aug. 15 through Dec. 19, 2016, couldn’t be found and the actual amount missing could be higher.

Beard was the administrative assistant for the PPD during this period and her duties included receipting and depositing money that came into the department. The audit showed un-receipted checks for $34,544 deposited into the bond and fine account in an apparent attempt to “conceal the unaccounted for funds consisting primarily of cash.” The checks, according to the audit, included service fees and accident report revenue in the amount of $10,566 that should have been deposited into the Police Equipment Fund.

Other discrepancies found in the audit included: manual receipts not always being posted into the computer in a timely manner; receipts not always indicating the correct method of payment; some manual receipts not being posted in the computer system, while others were posted for the wrong amount and/or to the wrong account; receipts weren’t identified with bank deposits; and some receipts were improperly altered, while others were improperly voided.

The audit determined internal control problems for the PPD as the receipting and depositing duties weren’t properly segregates, manual receipts weren’t reconciled with bank deposits and management didn’t provide adequate fiscal oversight.

According to the report’s summary, Beard, who resigned from her post with the PPD in 2016, was the custodian of funds and responsible for bank deposits during the period in question. A copy of the audit and its findings were turned over to the Eighth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. An investigation into the situation was done by the Arkansas State Police.