GOSHEN — An Elkhart County grand jury on Tuesday indicted Elkhart County Clerk Christopher Anderson and Chief Deputy Clerk Carol Smith for official misconduct and criminal conversion, according to a media release issued Wednesday afternoon.
Right after the indictment, Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker formally approved the indictment and filed it with Elkhart Circuit Court Tuesday night.
Both Anderson and Smith were ordered to turn themselves in to the Elkhart County Sheriff, where they were to be held until posting a bond.
The jail’s inmate lookup website showed Anderson and Smith turned themselves in on Wednesday.
The grand jury heard evidence of allegations that Anderson and Smith approved the expenditure of public funds without proper authorization.
A year ago, in September of 2024, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office and the Indiana State Board of Accounts were notified of “several concerns with certain clerk employees receiving payment for hours they did not actually work, and that the practice had been going on for several years.”
The State Board of Accounts issued a public report about the investigation in June, showing that the long-standing practice of paying supervisors for 80 hours even though they only had to work 72 did not comply with Elkhart County policy.
To further illustrate the endorsement of this practice, auditors reported that Smith had sent an email to a newly appointed supervisor of the Clerk’s Office in August of 2022 advising that “You get paid for 80 hours even though you only work 72. The idea is the supervisor is usually first in and last out, so it’s just a bit of extra for the supervisor taking on the job.”
The Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office conducted a criminal investigation into the same allegation to determine if the alleged conduct violated the criminal laws of the State of Indiana.
As an explanation, the prosecutor stated, “a Grand Jury may be requested under Indiana law by a Prosecuting Attorney to hear evidence of an allegation of criminal conduct. The Grand Jury becomes the exclusive judge of the facts in any matter it is empaneled to consider. The Court and the Prosecuting Attorney act as legal advisors to the Grand Jury, but may not participate in any deliberations of the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury consists of members of the Elkhart County community for the purpose of determining whether a criminal offense appears to have been committed within its jurisdiction. If, after deliberation, the Grand Jury returns an Indictment, the Prosecuting Attorney thereafter files the formal charging paperwork to initiate proceedings against the Targets. If a Grand Jury determines that no criminal offense has occurred within its jurisdiction, a ‘no bill’ is returned and the case is closed unless newly discovered evidence later comes to light.”
In this case, the grand jury entered indictments for the offenses of official misconduct, a Level 6 felony, and criminal conversion, a Class A misdemeanor, against both Anderson and Smith
An initial hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 11 at the Elkhart Circuit Court in the historic Elkhart County Courthouse, 101 N. Main St., Goshen, beginning at 8:30 a.m.