Advertisement

John R. Turner, 45, Frankenmuth, was charged with embezzlement by a public official of over $50 in Sanilac County District Court last Friday. He demanded a preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for March 19.

Turner was fired in July after a closed door meeting with Med-Control Board members, Michigan State Police Detective Brian Ferguson, Sanilac County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Brenda Sanford, and the certified public accounting firm hired by the board to "review matters relating to its director".

Medical Control handles the coordination of ambulance services in the county. The state mandates the authority, which is charged with developing and implementing treatment plans for patients; doing quality evaluations to see that the plans are followed; and evaluations to determine the adequacy of the ambulance services. Sanilac County Med Control also provides certified EMS training, which is funded through tuition and grants. It is funded by 2/10 of a mill, and received over $900,000 in grants over the past few years.

Med-Control Finance Committee Chairman JoAnn Hall, CEO of McKenzie Memorial Hospital, told Ferguson she first realized there was a problem last April when she saw Turner's travel vouchers for January and February.

According to the state police report, although Turner listed 8,340 miles for January and 8,344 miles for February 2007, he did not include necessary details about the mileage. Hall attempted to notify Marlette Hospital administrator and Med-Control Chairman Dave McEwen and Deckerville Hospital administrator Ed Gamache, who also served on the finance committee alongwith County Commissioner Jim Ruby. She then went to the agency's accountants, Brining & Nartker of Sandusky, for previous mileage statements.

According to the police report, Brining & Nartker told her his mileage had been continually increasing the past couple years.

For example, in December 2006 he claimed to have driven 500 or more miles to several destinations on several days, and claimed mileage for every Saturday and Sunday. In addition, he had claimed numerous incidents with meals during the evening, and some receipts seemed to conflict with the destination cities. The mileage also listed unnecessary round-trips to Sandusky, when it would have been shorter to drive from city to city.

According to the police report, the accountants also raised the issue of Turner's debit card, which Hall didn't know he had. They told her the bank mailed the statements directly to the firm, which paid them after Turner submitted the receipts. They said they provided statements for him to take to the board, which they now realized he had not done.

Over the past 14 months Turner had put over $72,000 in purchases on the debit card. Best Buy of Saginaw had records of approximately 30 transactions between Jan. 2005 and the spring of 2007 on the Med-Control card.

The transactions included several questionable purchases including a sewing machine, flat screen TV, Ipods and gift cards.

According to the police report, Turner told Hall the previous board did not question his purchases as long as the money was in the budget. He also told her the board had approved a credit card for Med-Control in 2002, but he got a debit card instead.

He said the Ipods were used as participation awards and he handed out the gift cards for Christmas presents.