(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Judge: County dispatcher ran a for-profit business out of the sheriff’s office [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2023-02-27
A Greene County police dispatcher was justifiably fired last year for the “brazen conversion of county taxpayer resources to personal gain,” an Iowa judge has ruled.
Newly released state records indicate Matthew J. Roberts was fired last September from the Greene County Sheriff’s Department after it was alleged he had been using county staff, computers and other equipment to run his private auction business from the front counter of the Greene County Law Enforcement Center.
The records show Roberts was employed by the sheriff’s department as a full-time dispatcher from 2010 until September 2022. He was tasked with answering 911 emergency calls, dispatching law enforcement and emergency medical personnel, and handling warrant information for the sheriff and the Jefferson Police Department.
Last May, Roberts was regularly working the overnight shift, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., when Sheriff Jack Williams grew concerned over the high printing expense associated with certain employees who appeared to be using the county’s equipment for personal business.
At the time, Roberts was operating a scrap metal business and participating in online auctions. On May 24, 2022, Williams posted a memo addressed to all Greene County Sheriff’s Department employees regarding the use of county computers and other equipment. It stated, “We have been watching, and personal stuff is being printed in black and white and color. The work computers are being used for personal use. This will stop as the taxpayers are paying for it and it is in the policy that they will not be used for personal use. If you need more to do while working let me know and I will find more to do.”
According to the county, the sheriff’s memo had little impact on Roberts, who was in the process of establishing another business venture, Raccoon River Valley Auctions. The county would later allege that between June and September 2022, Roberts routinely converted county resources — including his own on-duty time, county computers and printers, and other county personnel – to support his auction business.
The county alleged that Roberts had auction customers come to the Law Enforcement Center to pay for and collect auctioned merchandise, and at times used country personnel as his business clerks, having them collect his business income and distribute merchandise to his customers at the Law Enforcement Center’s front counter.
The county also alleged that Roberts brought merchandise to the Law Enforcement Center for the purpose of having the sheriff’s department staff assist with sorting, pricing and purchasing Raccoon River merchandise. In addition, the county alleged that Roberts used county computers to scour websites for potential purchases.
In August 2022, Sheriff Williams had online tracking software installed on his department’s computers. The software tracked Roberts’ online activities and documented what an administrative law judge would later characterize as an “immense record of Mr. Roberts converting county resources for use in Mr. Roberts’ for-profit enterprise.”
According to the county, on Sept. 20, 2022, the sheriff placed Roberts on administrative leave after concluding his conduct was not only a violation of county policy but a potential violation of a state law that pertains to outside employment and the activities of public employees.
Although there’s no public record to indicate Roberts was criminally charged, he was fired and subsequently applied for unemployment benefits. The county contested Roberts’ application, which led to a hearing before Administrative Law Judge James E. Timberland.
Timberland recently ruled against Roberts, denying him benefits and stating that Roberts’ “intentional misuse and conversion of public resources for use in his personal business enterprise is shocking, as are (his) attempts to excuse, minimize and deflect.”
Timberland ruled that much of Roberts’ testimony at the hearing appeared to be false or intentionally misleading. Roberts’ conduct “included theft of county time, both through his own activities and through enlistment of coworkers in his private enterprise,” Timberland ruled.
He added that Roberts “knowingly and intentionally engaged in a months-long, escalating and brazen conversion of county taxpayer resources to personal gain in violation of county policy and in violation of the sheriff’s reasonable directive.”
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