Police investigate money missing from Garland County District Court

HOT SPRINGS, AR - Hot Springs Police Chief David Flory confirms there is an ongoing investigation regarding district court money that could be missing.

"I can confirm that we do have an investigation into the allegations of money missing from the district court, but beyond that I can't comment," Flory said.

According to this hit springs employee action report, the city fired an employee for failing to follow collection policy procedures. At this point, that employee has not been criminally charged.

"I can tell you that the court has been very cooperative with law enforcement,” District Court Judge Ralph Ohm said. “We've done everything that they've asked us to do. We immediately contacted them whenever we saw an issue."

Judge Ohm says the potentially missing money comes from a fund consisting of fines, court costs and restitution. He says the court does know who paid the fees. The question is whether the undisclosed amount of money is still there.

"All these monies that were collected are accounted for,” Ohm said. “It's not that somebody didn't do that process. So we know everybody has made payments."

The judge, like everyone else, is waiting for the results of the criminal investigation, but he has a gut feeling about the allegations.

"The allegation is that there's money missing and I suspect that that allegation is true," Ohm said.

Because the fired employee has not been criminally charged, we're not releasing their name at this time.