Former South MS clerk pleads guilty to stealing nearly $100K from crime victims, county
A former Stone County circuit clerk pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud Tuesday.
According to a news release from District Attorney W. Crosby Parker, Jeffrey O’Neal received payment based on fraudulent statements he gave to the Stone County Board of Supervisors.
O’Neal was the Stone County Circuit Court clerk from 2016 to 2019.
Special Circuit Court Judge Richard McKenzie accepted the plea at the Stone County Courthouse and sentenced O’Neal to a total of 10 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Five years of the sentence were suspended, leaving O’Neal five years to serve.
Upon his release from prison, O’Neal will be placed on five years of post-release supervision and ordered to pay a total of nearly $95,000 in restitution to Stone County.
The Mississippi State Auditor’s Office investigated the case and discovered that while O’Neal was in office, he failed to perform many of his required duties as circuit clerk.
“What the investigation brought to light is that this defendant wanted the title of circuit clerk, but not the responsibility that goes with the office,” Parker said.
The investigation revealed O’Neal failed to pay Stone County more than $25,000 in fees during his four-year term.
He also failed to make restitution payments to victims of crime.
One of the duties of the Circuit Clerk’s Office is to receive payment from individuals convicted of crime to pay back their victims.
“After the money was paid to his office, this defendant would pay himself first, while failing to pay victims of crime,” said Parker.
O’Neal failed to send more than $36,000 of those payments to the victims of the crimes.
The Auditor’s Office also discovered that O’Neal had submitted years of fraudulent documents to the Stone County Board of Supervisors for allowances that had not been approved by a Circuit Court judge as required by law.
“As a result of these submissions, O’Neal received payments from the Board, and he deposited most of these payments into a Stone County bank account,” said Assistant District Attorney Matthew D. Burrell, who along with Jason Josef, prosecuted the case on behalf of the State. McKenzie ordered O’Neal to pay more than $31,000 in restitution to Stone County. The amount stemmed from double payments O’Neal received for conducting elections, from certain checks he deposited into his personal account, and for other unaccounted for monies.
After the criminal investigation, the Auditor’s Office was able to recover more than $86,000 O’Neal had deposited and left in county bank accounts, to which only he had access. After he lost his bid for reelection, O’Neal failed to turn over the money from those accounts as required. The court ordered that some of that money be used to pay the county and the victims.
Parker said the State Auditor’s Office has an outstanding civil demand against O’Neal, which is still pending.
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 3:19 PM.
