Former deputy auditor Mary C. Ray, of La Porte, had her assets frozen following a preliminary injunction hearing held on Monday in the La Porte County Circuit Court.
Ray has been accused of embezzling an excess of $150,000 funds from the La Porte County government. This accusation is rooted from evidence of her time working in the auditor's office during the entire year of 2012.
Her house and four vehicles have been frozen until a complete audit can be made by the state but she still has access to her bank accounts.
"It is the county's desire to get every dollar from the action. And we want to provide an additional level of security for the county," said La Porte County Attorney Shaw Friedman at the hearing. "That is why we would like to freeze a portion of her assets."
Field Examiner John Panakowski of the State Board of Accounts took the stand on Monday and told the judge the audit for 2012 had incongruences within its account. He said the exhibits supplied by the plaintiff were created by the SBoA as spreadsheets for each auditing day.
Panakowski said he examined the records of La Porte County and looked at the receipts and deposits made from the auditor's office.
An example of a day where Ray has been accused of taking funds was April 30, 2012. He said the State Board of Accounts found receipts of $9,863.29 collected that day. For that specific batch amount, only $7,509 was deposited. A batch is an amount of receipts that is collected and deposited as one transaction. The excess amount was receipted to Ray and taken out as cash.
Panakowski said he suspected Ray since each transaction with missing funds had a username code that matched Ray.
"Mary Ray was writing receipts when cash was missing," said Panakowski.
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