Published: January 05, 2010 11:35 am      

Former Clerk Melissa Turpin is indicted in Franklin Circuit Court

Monticello — Former Wayne County Clerk Melissa Turpin has been indicted in Franklin Circuit Court on two counts of willfully filing or making a false tax return or failure to pay tax.

The indictment was returned by a Franklin County grand jury on December 16, while Turpin was serving a two-month sentence in the Wayne County Detention Center on charges of abuse of a public trust over $10,000 and theft by unlawful taking over $300.

According to the indictment, Turpin allegedly "committed the offense of willfully filing or making a false tax return or failure to pay tax when she prepared or caused to be prepared and submitted to the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet in Franklin County, Kentucky an individual income tax return which was fraudulent or false as to a material matter with intent to evade payment of tax or any part thereof owed to the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

There is a count for the 2007 tax year and one for the 2008 tax year.

A special investigator from the Kentucky Department of Revenue apparently provided testimony to the Franklin County grand jury.

Turpin is scheduled for arraignment in Franklin Circuit Court on Friday, January 22 at 9 a.m.

This is the second set of indictments Turpin, who resigned as Wayne County Clerk in October, has faced in the last year. She was indicted in Wayne Circuit Court in August 2009 on two counts of abuse of a public trust over $10,000 and two counts of theft by unlawful taking over $300. Those charges were related to a lengthy investigation by the Kentucky Attorney General's Office and Kentucky State Police, after audits of the clerk's account in 2007 and 2008 turned up a $139,986 deficit.

Turpin pled guilty to all four counts in October 2008 and under a plea agreement served a 60 day sentence in the Wayne County Detention Center. She will remain on home incarceration for an additional four months. The remainder of her 10-year sentence on the local charges will be probated.

The plea agreement also required that Turpin make restitution for the deficit, and $64,986 was repaid in November. The remaining $75,000, which will be paid to Turpin's former bonding company Great American Insurance Company, will be paid in monthly payments, according to the court documents.

Turpin resigned from office on October 20, the day that she entered a guilty plea in Wayne Circuit Court. All records for 2009 through the date of her resignation are subject to state audit. No results from that audit have been released.