YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

December 21, 2000

Report No. 2000-128

The Traffic Violations Bureau of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Associate Division V, Platte County, Missouri, is responsible for assessing, collecting, and distributing monies in connection with traffic tickets handled by the court. 

During June and July 2000, court officials in Platte County identified discrepancies in the court�s collection of fines and court costs on a number of traffic cases.� On July 24, 2000, the Platte County Circuit Clerk notified the Platte County Sheriff of these discrepancies, reported that a shortage existed, and requested that the matter be investigated.� The Platte County Sheriff�s Department subsequently contacted the State Auditor�s office regarding this situation.� Our audit was performed to review these discrepancies and more fully determine the extent of misappropriated court funds. 

Between October 1999 and May 2000, payments on at least nine traffic tickets, totaling $925, were not recorded or deposited.� Defendants produced receipt slips issued by the court showing these nine tickets were paid; however, the collections were not recorded or deposited.� It appears these monies were misappropriated.� Payments on twenty-three additional traffic tickets, totaling $2,225, also appear to have been misappropriated.� Defendants provided verbal or written statements indicating the tickets were paid or there was documentation the tickets were paid in the manual case files, but collections were not recorded in the court�s computer system.� In addition, payments on a number of other traffic tickets do not appear to have been properly handled and we are continuing to follow-up on these tickets.� Documentation in the manual case files of many of these tickets indicate payments may have been made and it is likely that additional monies related to at least some of these tickets were also misappropriated.

Certain procedural or control weaknesses existed in the Traffic Violations Bureau which allowed this misappropriation to occur without being detected on a timely basis. 

Owens Lee Hull, Jr. serves as Presiding Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit.� Gary D. Witt serves as Associate Circuit Judge of Division V, and Sandra Dowd serves as Circuit Clerk. During the period under review, one clerk was primarily responsible for handling the receipt and recording of collections on traffic tickets.� On July 21, 2000, this clerk submitted her resignation and also provided a written statement to court officials indicating she was aware some monies were missing from cases.