Ex-Hancock County coroner indicted on embezzlement, other charges in state auditor’s probe
Former Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk has been indicted on felony charges, including embezzlement, multiple counts of making false representations to defraud the government and one count of alteration of records, State Auditor Shad White said in a news release.
In the state, coroners are paid fees based on the services they perform.
Faulk is accused of allegedly submitting and altering fraudulent invoices to Hancock County supervisors between February and March 2021.
He received $13,005 in public funds directly related to the fraud, White’s office said.
“My office will continue to take a zero-tolerance policy to misuse of public funds, regardless of whether the case is big or small,” said White. “Thank you to the investigators for their hard work on this case.”
Faulk had a $50,000 surety bond that covered his employment in Hancock County. However, he will remain liable for the total amount of the fraudulent funds he received, in addition to facing prosecution for the alleged crimes.
His indictments come over a year after Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents executed at least two search warrants at his home and office in Hancock County.
His certification as a coroner was suspended in March 2021, and Faulk resigned from his post in July 2021, saying he was doing so because he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
When his license was suspended, a letter sent by a director at the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory said the State Medical Examiner’s Office had suspended his license for the “potential failure to comply” with mandatory reporting requirements to the Department of Child Protective Services on child deaths and to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics on overdose deaths.
When Mississippi authorities raided Faulk’s home and office in 2021, he said officers took cellphones, computers and other office supplies along with clothing belonging to deceased people whose deaths he had investigated.
In addition, Faulk said at the time of the raid that authorities seized a bag of empty prescription bottles which originally contained prescription medications that he had collected at death scenes.
Faulk said he had destroyed any leftover prescriptions in those bottles, though other prescription medications he had collected had yet to be destroyed, though he had planned to do so.
He said his office had also made cash seizures, and the cash was counted several times in front of witnesses, many of whom were in law enforcement.
Faulk denied any criminal wrongdoing at the time of the searches.
This story was originally published March 23, 2023 at 2:33 PM.
