COLUMBIANA PROBE Prosecutor says Pike handled case well

The health board was to meet today to discuss a criminal investigation.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Judge C. Ashley Pike correctly handled a 1999 case involving an employee who used a county credit card for a cash advance during a Las Vegas seminar trip, Columbiana County Prosecutor Robert Herron said.
Herron, who is probing county health Commissioner Robert Morehead's use of a county card, said Thursday he has no objections to Judge Pike's actions several years ago in not referring the 1999 credit card matter to law enforcement.
"It sounds like it was appropriately handled by the judge," Herron said. "I'm sure Judge Pike looked at it very closely."
In general, county department heads "are qualified to consider the circumstances" of an employee's conduct, Herron said. "If it appears it was more than an innocent mistake, they need to refer it to law enforcement."
That doesn't seem to have been necessary in this case, Herron said.
Judge Pike -- now common pleas judge, but in 1999 in charge of probate and juvenile courts -- never disciplined then-court director Dane Walton for using the county card for a cash advance of several hundred dollars while he was in Las Vegas in May 1999.
Walton also used the county card several years before that to buy his parents dinner but repaid the charge.
His decision
Judge Pike recalled earlier this week that when he examined the issue in 1999, Walton explained that both instances were mistakes, and that he had promptly reimbursed for the charges.
The judge said he considered Walton's good work record and the circumstances and decided neither punishment nor a referral to law enforcement was warranted.
Walton continues to work for the court, now serving as administrator. He also still goes to Las Vegas for conferences, having just returned from one in late March.
The 1999 episode came to light amid a Vindicator series that has detailed questionable spending in county government, including credit card use and out-of-state conference trips.
The stories prompted Herron to order a criminal probe at the health department and to request a state audit of the agency, which has begun.
Health board members have expressed support for Morehead, 55, but also concern for what has occurred. The panel was to meet this morning to confer with their attorney on the ongoing probe, board member Shawn Apple said.
Reimbursements
In other developments, county Auditor Nancy Milliken said Thursday that Morehead has given her bookkeepers $718.70 in cash for unspecified reimbursements. Milliken said she would have liked to have known what the repayment, made Wednesday, was for. But she's decided to let state auditors determine that.
A three-month investigation by The Vindicator showed Morehead had used his county credit card in 2003 to make personal buys, including for books, Christmas gifts and golf accessories.
leigh@vindy.com