Ex-Arkansas official pleads guilty in scheme involving county property

A former county judge pleaded guilty to charges that include forgery and theft after authorities discovered county property on his Arkansas farm, court records show.

It began in June 2015, when David Charles Sherrell, 58, approached a truck company to buy two dump trucks for the Izard County Road Department, according to an affidavit from Arkansas State Police.

Sherrell, who was then serving as the county judge in Izard County, told the company to raise the price of the trucks to include the price of a trailer, valued around $7,250, authorities said. His son-in-law, Matt Orf, later reportedly sold the same trailer to the county for $9,250.

In the same month, Sherrell purchased two road graders valued at $143,000 using an invoice for one road grader valued at $163,000, keeping one at his home until he lost his re-election bid, according to the affidavit. Paul Shuttleworth, a salesman at Stribling Equipment, later told authorities that he knew the invoice was fraudulent but signed it “for fear of losing the sales."

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/nov/06/former-arkansas-judge-pleads-guilty-fraud-theft/