Seeking state help in probe

Investigators removed all department travel and expense records Monday.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A review of questionable spending by Columbiana County Health Commissioner Robert Morehead is intensifying, with the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation being asked to help.
County Prosecutor Robert Herron said Monday he invited the state investigative agency to join the county sheriff's office in the criminal probe because of the close organizational ties between the county and state health departments.
In other developments, Herron met Monday morning with county auditor Nancy Milliken and a state auditor's department investigator. Herron also talked with the chief state auditor for this area as part of his request that the state auditor's office scrutinize the health department's spending as soon as possible.
Questionable spending
The criminal probe and the request for a state audit are part of Herron's response to a story in Sunday's Vindicator outlining questionable spending by Morehead.
Herron said Morehead's use of a county-issued Visa credit card to make personal buys, as detailed by The Vindicator, strongly suggests improper use of a credit card and must be examined.
Such actions can constitute theft in office, Herron has said.
Morehead, 55, who did not respond Monday to a request for an interview, has denied any wrongdoing. He has said he reimbursed at least some of the personal expenses he rang up on the county credit card.
Sheriff's officials went to the health department, located in Center Township north of Lisbon, Monday morning and requested records back to 2002, including all the department's expense vouchers, expense reports, the health department's expense ledger and any documents that might show if Morehead made reimbursements for personal buys made on the county-issued credit card, Herron said.
Investigators have removed from the county auditor's office all health department travel and expense records on file there. The papers are locked up pending an audit, Herron said.
It's likely that Morehead will be interviewed soon by sheriff's officials, Herron said.
Whether the probe will broaden beyond credit-card usage depends on findings of the criminal investigation and a state audit, Herron said.
Charged meals
He added that he anticipates state auditors will examine whether it was proper for Morehead to charge the public nearly $800 for about 40 meals he ate in 2003 at Pondi's, a Lisbon bar and restaurant owned by Matt Borza, a health board member since April 2003.
Borza said he can understand the appearance of impropriety that might arise from a board member's benefiting from the department's policy of allowing business meals at local restaurants to be charged to the public.
But Borza said the meals didn't amount to much, that Morehead had been eating at Pondi's before he became a board member and that there aren't many restaurant options in Lisbon.
"It's an issue that needs evaluated," Herron said.