GOSHEN — A former sheriff’s office employee is accused of stealing more than $27,000 from inmates’ accounts over a one-year period.
Haley Atherton, 26, is charged with official misconduct and theft as Level 6 felonies in court documents filed this week. Police say she took money belonging to former inmates while working as a booking specialist at the Elkhart County Correctional Facility.
She was employed by the sheriff’s department until June 18.
According to court documents:
A Goshen Police detective started investigating Atherton in June after a jail secretary found a discrepancy with an inmate’s trust account. It was found that $22.25 had been removed from an account and placed on a debit card twice in the same day on April 28, leaving the account unbalanced.
The inmate had been released from the jail over a year earlier. He told the detective that he didn’t give anyone permission to remove the money.
The sheriff’s office looked into it further and found that additional debit cards had been created by drawing on the funds of former inmates. All of the transactions had been done by Atherton, an employee since July 2023, according to investigators.
All of her transactions from the start were inspected and 616 were found that were suspicious, because the withdrawals were done after the inmates were released, police say. The suspicious transactions amounted to $26,489.92, though it was later determined that the total Atherton allegedly stole between July 2024 and June 2025 was $27,239.49.
Security footage from December also allegedly showed Atherton creating four debit cards and pocketing them before leaving for the day.
She was interviewed at the Goshen Police Department in June and allegedly said that no one had shown her how to make the debit cards and that she didn’t think anyone would care. She later said she knew people would care but justified it because she “didn’t want to starve” or “lose this or that,” according to police.
Atherton allegedly said she used some of the money to get a car and to buy dinner. Transactions records and security footage indicated that Atherton used the money at Walmart, Meijer and a smoke shop, police say.
She said she was surprised to learn that she had made over 600 debit cards for people who were released before making cards for herself, according to police. She allegedly said she couldn’t do much now other than “take it on the chin” and deal with what comes next.
A sheriff’s department spokesman said Wednesday that they seek to hold employees accountable when allegations like this arise.
“We take this kind of conduct seriously,” said Capt. Mike Culp. “When information reveals poor choices by someone, as in this case, we will investigate. If we find violations, we will seek accountability and communicate openly.”