inyocourthouseTwo months ago, Bishop Police Chief Chris Carter revealed that his Department and the Inyo District Attorney had launched an investigation into what they believed was an embezzlement of funds from the Inyo Welfare Office in Bishop. On February 21st, Chief Carter said his officers had concluded their investigation and would submit it to the District Attorney.
A month later, we have placed a call to Inyo DA Art Maillet to find out when information will go public. At news time, we had received no return call. However, Health and Human Services Director Jean Turner said the last thing she heard from the District Attorney was that the case might go public “sometime in April.”

Chief Carter had said in February that he would request that the DA issue arrest warrants and that the amount of money stolen be revealed. He expected information to go public “within a week or so.”

What is known is that Dawndee Rossy, Welfare Office worker, was identified as a “person of interest” in this case. A search warrant was served on her home. Both Chief Carter and Health and Human Services Director Jean Turner have said the amount of money taken was “substantial.”

In February Turner said that employees at the Welfare Office had detected “irregularities” and that a “substantial amount of money was taken.”
It is believed that the suspect or suspects submitted false claims to the State for payment.

Chief Carter had told the Bishop City Council in January that the complex investigation was “quite the daunting task for our small department.” The Chief had called on experts at the State level to help unravel the local mystery.

Supervisor Jeff Griffiths had also said publicly that “We are concerned about internal controls. We want to make sure that this does not happen again.”

 

 

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