Linda Farley
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 61-year-old Stillwater woman accused in a state audit of being responsible for $137,698.52 in misappropriated and questioned expenditures from the Payne County Sheriff’s Office while she was its office manager has been ordered to appear in court on April 1 on an eight-count felony charge.
Linda Gail Farley, who was ordered held on $100,000 bail, was booked into the Payne County Jail on March 6 before being transported to the Logan County Jail that afternoon, a court official told KUSH.
Farley was hired in 2009 by then Sheriff R.B. Hauf and terminated in 2021 by current Sheriff Joe Harper, who with Payne County Clerk Glenna Craig had become suspicious of her activities and sought a state audit that was expanded by District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas, authorities said.
“On Nov. 15, 2021, Payne County Sheriff Joe Harper requested Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) assistance involving an invoice that had been altered by Linda Farley for payment by Payne County for work allegedly done on a sheriff’s office patrol vehicle by Bill Knight Ford,” that was actually done on a vehicle belonging to Farley’s daughter, an affidavit alleged.
“OSBI Agent Lt. Marty Wilson interviewed Farley and reported the following: Farley was the person who authorized charging the work on (her daughter’s) vehicle to the county. Farley altered the invoice in question to show that the work had been performed on a Payne County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) vehicle. She did this so that the paperwork would go through without any questions being asked.
“Farley did not have permission to authorize the initial charges, nor to make any changes to the invoice. She did so all on her own and did not tell anybody else what she had done. Farley did this to help her daughter out because (her daughter) could not afford to pay for the work at the time it was done. Farley could not afford to pay for it either, so she charged it to the county with the intention of reimbursing the county when she was paid on Nov. 30, 2021,” OSBI Agent Chad Vanhoesen alleged in an affidavit.
“The State Auditor and Inspector concluded that Farley, then office manager of the PCSO, had misappropriated $82,176.54 of Payne County Funds through the unauthorized use of a PCSO credit card and by submitting altered and fabricated invoices for payment. The State Auditor also noted that an additional $55,521.98 of questioned costs were related to Farley’s use of the Spare Fuel Card and her receipt of unauthorized payroll payments.
“Between October 2015 and October 2021, a total of $5,014.36 in altered invoices were submitted by Farley to the Clerk and were approved for payment by the Board of County Commissioners. The altered invoices showed that on several occasions automotive work was performed on PCSO vehicles. The actual invoices from the business reflected that the work had been performed on vehicles not belonging to the county, personal vehicles of Farley’s choosing.
“There were several hotel receipts that had been altered and submitted by Farley to the Clerk and were paid from Payne County funds,” including one altered receipt dated July 20, 2019, that reflected a sheriff’s investigator had stayed at a Tulsa hotel for training on July 18 and 19, 2019, and that a PCSO credit card was used to pay for the room but the actual invoice showed that Farley had stayed at that hotel on those dates, the affidavit alleged.
“There were approximately 16 PCSO credit card expenditures that were documented by altered invoices for hotel days or automotive work that were submitted by Farley that were for personal vehicles or trips/vacations,” the affidavit alleged.
“From April 2017 through June 2020, 18 purchase orders totaling $54,459.24 were issued in the name of Farley’s son for work not performed or items not purchased. In documents prepared by and submitted by Farley, she represented that her son was doing work for the Sheriff’s Office,” but her son had never done any work for the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit alleged.
“During the investigation, I learned that Farley sometimes used a signature stamp for the sheriff, or that her representations on the purchase orders were such that the sheriff or undersheriff signed without knowing that the purchase was for personal use. Each of the sheriffs indicated that they had trusted Farley completely with the work she did for the Sheriff’s Office,” OSBI Agent Vanhoesen alleged in his affidavit.
“Farley utilized the PCSO Lowes card to purchase such items as vinyl plank flooring, a farmhouse kitchen sink, countertops, bathroom vanity, vinyl siding & skirting, a Roomba and an air compressor. She submitted the receipts and receiving reports as though these were items purchased for the PCSO. On the 6th day of December 2023, the OSBI served a search warrant on Farley’s home and located a farmhouse kitchen sink, vinyl flooring, siding and skirting, a double bathroom vanity, and a glass storm door that fit the exact description as the items Farley claimed were purchased for the Sheriff’s Office,” the affidavit alleged.
“The State Auditor reported that over a seven-year period Farley’s pay exceeded her authorized salary resulting in questioned costs of $20,282.22,” in the form of charged overtime, straight time and holidays — although the Payne County Personnel Policy handbook provided that administrative employees are not approved to work overtime, the affidavit alleged.
In a Jan. 4, 2023, interview that Farley requested with her attorney present in District Attorney Investigator Greg Miller’s office, “Farley admitted to the altering of county documents for vehicle repairs and hotel stays for her and her daughter’s benefit, requesting purchase orders and receiving payment for work not performed by her son, and that she purchased a computer but would not reveal to investigators where the computer was located,” the affidavit alleged.
The district attorney said in a news release, “This embezzlement was complex and brazen and committed by an employee trusted by the Sheriff’s Office. To ensure a meticulously successful prosecution, I brought a former employee out of retirement for this matter,” Karen Dixon as special prosecutor with specific expertise in embezzlement cases.
Farley has been charged with six counts of embezzlement, each punishable by one to 10 years in prison and a fine equal to triple the amount of money embezzled and an order to pay restitution, and two counts of making a false entry relating to expenditure of public funds, each punishable by one to 20 years in prison and a $500 fine.
The district attorney noted, “The forensic audit cost to the Sheriff’s Office is in the amount of $70,605.61, which we will also seek with any restitution in this matter.”
