A break for the unrepentant

A break for the unrepentant

Robert Morehead, the former Columbiana County health commissioner who misspent thousands of tax dollars on a county credit card, was the recipient last week of undeserved leniency.

Even after being found guilty of theft in office, Morehead admitted nothing more than being guilty of sloppy bookkeeping. His self-serving statements were a disgrace, the continued support he received from, among others, Dr. Jack Amato, county health board president, is a disgrace, and it is a further disgrace that it took almost five years to bring this case to an unsatisfactory end.

A former Vindicator reporter, Norman Leigh, uncovered Morehead’s credit card abuse and reported on it May 2, 2004. Through the efforts of State Auditor Mary Taylor’s office, Morehead finally had his day in court. But the health board’s willingness to make excuses for Morehead’s inexcusable behavior forced Taylor’s attorney on the case to accept a plea on just one count of theft in office. Morehead had been indicted on multiple counts that could have (and should have) sent him to prison for years. Instead, he got off with a 60-day prison term.

Morehead held onto his job for years after his misdeeds were made public. He only resigned from his $90,000-a-year job in December, after entering his guilty plea.

It wasn’t enough for Morehead to make a handsome salary. He used his county credit card to buy personal items and to charge thousands of dollars in restaurant meals, including some at a restaurant owned by a board of health member and others at Hooters and Joe’s Crab Shack. He was a double-dipper, charging the county for $913 in business mileage while using the county credit card to buy $1,217 worth of gasoline. He blamed a bookkeeper for not catching that bit of thievery. He made cash advances of $1,368 on his county card.

Almost all of that was reported by this paper five years ago. Columbiana County residents should be outraged that it took so long to bring so little justice to Robert Morehead.