Zettler, 50, of Mineral Point, was charged on June 22 with three counts of felony theft, one count of false felony and misdemeanor official misconduct. Zettler, two Collector’s Office employees and a former employee are accused of robbing Washington County by receiving cash fees for processing trust property sales.

Following reports of alleged theft in the tax collector’s office, a forensic audit was ordered by the Washington County Commission on Property Tax Sales. Daniel Jones & Associates completed the audit on May 24. For the four-year audit, there were $107,081 in unaccounted funds, according to billing documents.

Another felony theft charge in a new case against Zettler was filed on June 27, alleging that she again used county funds in an attempt to obtain deeds to use in her personal criminal defense of the original charges.

Zettler’s attorney, Lydia H. McEvoy, who previously served as a Clay County tax collector, this week issued a statement on behalf of her client regarding the criminal cases filed in the case.

“In response to the charges against her, Ms. Zettler has retained a former Missouri collector as counsel and looks forward to addressing these issues in court,” Zettler’s attorney said in the statement. “No part of the State’s record alleges that Ms. Zettler took money for herself or received a personal benefit from money raised during fiduciary sales.

“Following procedures established by (former collector) Mike McGirl many years ago, Mrs. Zettler handled the sale of over 1,100 trustee sales without question or concern from any office, employee or taxpayer,” McEvoy said. “Ms. Zettler has faithfully carried out her duties, and last Tuesday’s additional arrest reveals a profound misunderstanding of the statutes that govern the collector’s offices and their budgets.

“Ms Zettler is confident that her day in court will shine a light on the good she has done as a tax collector and that these baseless charges will be summarily dismissed,” she added.

Along with the charges against Zettler, current employees of the collector’s office Laura Laramore, 41, of Caledonia, and Hanna I. Zettler, 24, of Potosi, were charged with felony theft and misdemeanor official misconduct. Former employee Leslie Harmon, 50, of Potosi, is charged with felony theft.

The official misconduct charges allege that each defendant, “a public official, acting in his public capacity as a trustee of Washington County, knowingly received a fee for…processing trustee property sales, which indicated that the fee was more than due”.

The four women were first charged after Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s C Division to investigate possible thefts last year.

In October, the sheriff reportedly told MSHP investigators that a Washington County resident contacted him about fees paid to the Washington County Collector’s Office for property tax sales. Jacobsen said the charges were accepted by the collector’s office in cash and were not deposited into the county’s general fund, according to the statement of probable cause.

That same day, an MSHP investigator interviewed Carla Zettler and Laramore, the assistant collector, about how the office was handling Woodland Lake Development lot sales.

Carla Zettler told police that when former tax collector McGirl served as tax collector and she was assistant tax collector, a deal was struck through the county commission to sell the Woodland Lake lots Development for $1 plus $99 associated fees to facilitate their removal. from the list of overdue taxes, according to the authorities.

The investigator states in his report that a review of the commission meeting reports by the county clerk revealed no authority to sell these lots for $1. There was however a commission meeting in 2011 allowing the sale of these campgrounds for $50.

Zettler reportedly told authorities that of the $100 (which his office collected in cash or by money order), $1 went to the cost of the lot. Other money was earmarked for registering the lot, leaving $23 for the trustee and a $19 fee for the county collector’s office employee performing the transaction, according to the release. She allegedly told the police that she did it just like McGirl did. She also said residents who wanted a copy of Woodland Lake lot listings had to pay $5, which went to petty cash.

The report says state law prevents a trustee from being paid more than 10% of the sale of a property.

McGirl was interviewed and explained how he handled trust tax sales and deed processing when he was the collector. He reportedly said employees were only paid by county check (their wages) for performing their jobs, which included processing deeds. He said overdue lots were being sold for $100, not $1, and said the $100 fee was at one point lowered to $50 by the county commission, but had no never been $1, according to police.

When the MSHP investigator explained how the current collector handled the fees, McGirl reportedly said he didn’t know why they did it this way, but that wasn’t the procedure he used when he was the collector.

The MSHP investigator also interviewed the county treasurer, recorder of deeds and former assessor.

The treasurer said Carla Zettler never brought him money for a deposit. She said the collector’s office employees are paid by the county and should not be paid cash for preparing the deed.

Harmon allegedly told authorities that when she worked for the collector’s office, as instructed, she would put $1 in the cash drawer and then separate the remaining money. She said $30 would go to registering the deed, $50 to the trustee and the remaining $19 would go to the employee who worked on the transaction, according to the statement.

She further stated that a bag of money was kept in the safe which contained cash. She reportedly said that employees were told not to take the bag out during audits and were reminded to make duplicate receipts each time an audit was carried out.

She said there was a time when someone overpaid $100 on a tax bill. She said Carla Zettler didn’t seem concerned and put the overpayment money in the till bag, which she said was commonly used to buy office lunches, according to the report.

Harmon reportedly said the $5 fee to get a copy of Woodland Lake’s lot tax list was also put in the cash bag.

A forensic audit was ordered by the Washington County Commission on Property Tax Sales. For the four-year audit, there were $107,081 in unrecorded funds.

Following the MSHP’s interview with Carla Zettler on June 15 regarding the results of the audit, authorities say she again used county funds to try to obtain trust deeds for her criminal defense.

Two days after the interview, on June 17 at 9:23 a.m., an email was reportedly sent from Carla Zettler’s official Washington County email account to the Washington County Recorder of Deeds. The report says the email was a request for a copy of all trust deeds for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2021. The timeframe requested by Carla Zettler was the exact timeframe reviewed by forensic auditors, according to authorities.

Later that day, at 12:16 p.m., the Washington County Recorder of Deeds responded to Carla Zettler’s request with an emailed letter detailing the cost of the request totaling $870.40 payable to the Washington County Recorder of Deeds .

On June 21 at 3:39 p.m., Carla Zettler reportedly emailed the Recorder of Deeds requesting registrations of trust deeds from January 2021 through June 2021 and asked if the documents could be emailed. The Recorder of Deeds responded the next morning, stating that the total cost of recordings for that period would be $70.30. Carla Zettler responded, saying she was on leave that day but would receive a check at the recorder of deeds the next day, according to filings.

On the morning of June 23, Carla Zettler received a subpoena after being charged the day before with three counts of felony theft ($750 or more), forgery and official misconduct stemming from the medical audit. -legal of criminal investigation.

Later that afternoon, at 1:43 p.m., the report says the Recorder of Deeds emailed Carla Zettler stating that they had received her payment to complete the request for records. Payment received by the Recorder of Deeds was reportedly in the form of a check from an account titled “County of Washington Collectors TMF” with a signature of “Carla Zettler” and “Deed Fee” noted on the memo section of the check.

The additional theft charge was filed on June 27, and Carla Zettler was sentenced to Washington County Jail the following day. The woman’s bail was set at $10,000 and she was released after posting 10%. While free on bail, the court ordered Carla Zettler not to use county funds for her personal use.

The collector pleaded not guilty in both cases. His next court appearances in the cases are scheduled for August 3. The first arraignments in the cases against Hanna Zettler, Laramore and Harmon are also scheduled for August 3.