Butler County Clerk of Courts Mary Swain asked Gmoser to look into the accusation after it was brought to her attention in June. The accusation came to light after an accounting error was committed by an employee in the clerk’s office in June.
The female employee said she did not commit the error on purpose, but she claimed to other employees that Carpenter asked her to “mess things up in the office,” according to the investigation documents.
Carpenter denies any wrongdoing and after reviewing the BCI report, Gmoser said he did not think enough evidence was present to specify criminal conduct.
“It is inconceivable I would ask somebody to do something like that because I implemented a system in the clerk’s office that catches those errors,” Carpenter said.
Gmoser asked for the independent investigation by the Attorney General’s Office on July 6 because his office serves as legal counsel for both elected officials involved. Carpenter’s name is redacted from the investigation documents, but written statements from the employee given to this newspaper by Swain match the BCI files.
During an interview with agents, the employee said she was approached by Carpenter during a meal at IHOP in West Chester Twp. after a Republican meeting on June 2 and was asked to “start purposefully messing up the files in the file room and to start messing up finances in the office.”
“These requests were suggested in an effort to make (Clerk of Courts) Mary Swain look bad so she wouldn’t get the endorsement or elected to office,” the woman said in the investigation’s documents.
The investigation indicates the employee, who was hired by Carpenter in June 2008, said it was suggested that “messing up the files” would make the county judges mad at Swain.
Swain was appointed clerk of courts by the county Republican Party in January after Carpenter was elected commissioner. She was chosen over longtime clerk’s office employee Jeff Wyrick, who was backed by Carpenter and who is running against Swain in the 2012 Republican primary. Wyrick was fired by Swain shortly after she took office.
The employee did not let anyone know about the accusation until she was notified she made a mistake on a receipt. The employee asked an office manager if she thought she made the mistake on purpose and the office manager answered, “no.” The employee then told the office manger that Carpenter had asked her to make mistakes with the receipts, according to the documents.
Shortly after, the employee in question made similar comments to two other co-workers that were documented and given to Swain. That’s when Swain approached the prosecutor about the accusations.
Gmoser requested BCI conduct the investigation to determine if sufficient cause existed to initiate a criminal investigation regarding the allegations.
“I immediately reviewed the allegations and determined it had to be handled by an outside agency,” Gmoser said. “I acted with lightening speed, recognizing the need for an independent outside agency to handle any investigation.”
The employee agreed to make controlled, recorded calls to Carpenter as part of the investigation.
During the first phone call, the woman told Carpenter she was in kind of a “pickle” because she told a coworker “about what you said that night over at the IHOP,” according to the investigation report.
When Carpenter asked, “What thing?” the woman answered, “About when you were suggesting that I just screw up the files and stuff.”
Carpenter replied, “Uh-huh and reiterated ‘that I suggested to you that you screw up the files?’”
The woman said, “Yea, because I had some problems actually that same week with the files and they were questioning me what was going on.”
Carpenter, who was not interviewed separately by BCI agents, answered, “So you didn’t say you did it on purpose.”
The woman replied, “No, I was trying to cover, didn’t want them mad at me ... I was trying to get myself out of a situation.”
The woman agreed to a follow-up controlled telephone call. In the conversation, the woman told Carpenter she was concerned the restaurant conversation would come back to her since there was an investigation.
According to the documents, Carpenter said, “Since that was a table full of 18 people, goofing off and joking, that’s not a conspiracy by any stretch of the imagination.”
In its conclusion, the investigation said agents did not believe the employee made the accounting error on purpose.
“BCI’s conclusion and my conclusion was this case had insufficient evidence for the purpose of pursuing a criminal charge,” Gmoser said.
When contacted by this newspaper, the employee who made the accusations said, “I have no comment on this.”
Carpenter told this newspaper she did not have a direct conversation with the employee at the IHOP and made no comment about messing up files or receipts to anyone. She said she was also unaware of the BCI investigation until learning of a public records request by this newspaper.
She said she does remember the calls from the employee and at the time thought they were “strange.”
“It is part of a pattern of Mary Swain to launch political attacks,” Carpenter said. She said she has been vocal about her support of Wyrick.
“For the past 12 months I have been the victim of unbelievably vicious political attacks because I ask questions, represent change and am willing to work hard for the citizens of Butler County,” Carpenter said. “I take great pride in the award winning reputation of the clerk’s office under my administration.”
Swain said she does not believe any sabotage happened in the office.
“Errors were made, but I do not feel they were intentional,” Swain said, adding the employee is still employed by the office.
But Swain said when the accusations came to light, she felt she needed to find out the truth.
Swain said,” I took the action I felt was necessary to protect the office. I felt due diligence would call for nothing less. We are talking about the integrity of court cases. All these files equate to peoples’ lives and any tampering should be prosecuted.
“It was handled appropriately and my office has moved on,” she said.
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