Probe into $2.3 million missing from Wake Register of Deeds nearly complete

Investigators are near the end of their criminal probe into what happened to nearly $2.3 million believed to be missing from the Wake County Register of Deeds’ office.

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said investigators are “in the final stages of the criminal investigation” and could take their case to a Wake County grand jury next month.

Freeman declined to say who the criminal investigation focused on and how much of the $2.3 million identified as unaccounted for over a 10-year period would be tied to any criminal charges.

The criminal probe launched in late March stems from an internal audit ordered on Feb. 3 by top Wake County officials.

The audit looked at all the transactions in the Register of Deeds’ office during the 10-year period. What might account for some of the missing money, Freeman said, is instances in which clerks decided someone was indigent, or too poor to pay fees, and issued a birth certificate or marriage license without noting the decision on records maintained through the years. The audit also might not account for cashier errors, Freeman said.

Jim Hartmann, former Wake County manager, said at the announcement of the criminal probe that he called for the audit after workers on the 40-member Register of Deeds staff noticed financial irregularities while trying to modernize collection processes there.

The Register of Deeds’ office records legal documents and maps, issues marriage licenses and vital records certificates, certifies documents and administers notary-public oaths. The office takes in about $14 million a year, a large portion of which is cash.

Laura Riddick, a Republican elected to six consecutive terms, was at the helm of the office from 1996 until earlier this year when she resigned for what she said were health reasons.

On April 5, four days after Riddick’s retirement took effect, Troy Ellis III, a technician, was fired. Ellis had worked at the office since 2010 and confessed to taking $50,000 over the past year, according to a dismissal letter written by Luther Snyder, who was acting Register of Deeds at the time.

According to the letter, Ellis called his supervisor to talk about the missing money on April 1, a day after county leaders announced they had asked the SBI to open their probe.

Riddick has declined to discuss the case.

But records obtained by The News & Observer show how top-level employees in her office did an exercise of their own that led to the internal audit conducted by county officials.

During an eight-day period, according to the records, employees who handle cash in the office counted the currency before delivering it to Riddick, with surprising results: Each day, after the money left Riddick’s office, cash was missing, mostly $20 and $100 bills, a total of $200 to $800 a day, the records show. There was one exception: No cash was missing the one day Riddick did not go to work.

At the end of eight days, the office was missing $3,980 in cash.

Freeman has said the office lacked audit control procedures for the collection of cash.

Ellis, who was the employee who delivered the cash to Riddick for a year, was cooperating with investigators.

Freeman said earlier this year it was “possible there were multiple people engaged in taking money from the office.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Probe into $2.3 million missing from Wake Register of Deeds nearly complete."