Clay County charge against former Wichita County IT worker dismissed, Click to find out why

Ashley Culley said accusations from the Clay County Sheriff's Office left her life in tatters.

A misdemeanor charge against Culley of tampering with a government record was dropped Oct. 6. It was connected to her part-time information technology work in Clay County.

Sheriff Jeffrey Lyde's office never turned in documents to the prosecutor to move the case forward, according to Culley and her attorney.

Culley, a former Wichita County IT worker, spoke out against Lyde on Thursday.

"Jeff Lyde had no intention of filing a case. His goal was to ruin my life, career and reputation and he accomplished that within the first 24 hours," Culley said in a statement.

After her arrest, she was fired from her IT job at Wichita County for alleged personnel violations. She had worked there over 18 years.

Culley declined to explain why Lyde would allegedly target her, saying her attorney advised her not to because of pending litigation.

More: UPDATE: Wichita County IT worker's attorneys say allegation of document tampering is false

Lyde said he had no idea where Culley's comments were coming from.

“I don't have any animosity towards her whatsoever," he said.

Clay County Justice of the Peace John Swenson said it was mandatory that he dismiss the charge against Culley.

A defense attorney filed a motion for dismissal, saying the case wasn't prosecuted within the proper length of time, Swenson said. He found that to be true.

Formal charging documents like an indictment were required to move the case forward within 180 days of Culley's March 22 arrest and bailing out of jail, according to the Sept. 20 motion.

The two-year statute of limitations to prosecute the charge also ticked away, according to the motion.

Culley's defense attorney, Frank Sellers of Fort Worth, said she cannot be charged or subjected to prosecution again for the allegations.

And Culley is innocent, he said.

Culley said Lyde's office never turning in case documents to Clay County Attorney Seth Slagle left the case stalled and her unable to have her day in court.

Attempts to reach Slagle on Thursday were unsuccessful.

After looking at the dismissal, the sheriff said he did not get into the business of second-guessing judges and prosecutors.

"And I don’t have intimate knowledge of every single case that goes on here," Lyde said.

He said an investigator or deputy would have turned the paperwork in — not him.

Sheriff's Sgt. Investigator Kenny Nash wrote the affidavit for the arrest warrant for Culley.

She was accused of intentionally omitting older computer equipment from government records on June 3, 2019, so the Sheriff's Office could pass a state audit, according to allegations in the affidavit.

More: Clay County Sheriff freed on PR bond

The alleged omission came to light after newly elected Sheriff Lyde took office Nov. 30, 2020.

The tampering charge is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Culley described a pattern of a lack of information flowing to her and her attorneys from the Sheriff's Office.

When she found out there was a warrant for her arrest, her attorney set up a time for her to turn herself in, she said.

"At that time I had no idea what I was being accused of. I was held in Clay County Jail for almost 4 hours for what was supposed to be a book in book out," Culley said.

After her arrest, Wichita County officials put Culley on paid administrative leave and then, effective April 8, fired her from her position as assistant director of the county's IT Department.

Wichita County had launched a human resources probe and uncovered alleged violations of personnel policy, according to information obtained by the Times Record News through open records requests.

Culley said she does not know why she was fired and did not get the chance to defend herself.

Lyde brought up another legal tangle.

He said he didn't know if the Clay County charge was dropped "because they were going with the charges that are also pending in Wichita County and wasn't going to clutter it up."

No charges turned up in searches of the Wichita County's online system for Culley, who said she has never been arrested there.

The Wichita County Sheriff's Office obtained a May 10 search warrant for Culley's external hard drive. Her personal hard drive had been seized from her Wichita County office.

She was accused of taking Wichita County IT equipment and software that was out of service but not legally transferred to another agency so it could be used in Clay County, according to allegations in the search warrant.

"Lyde alleged I stole Wichita County property that was never declared destroyed ... by the Wichita County Commissioners. This information is false and (it) can be proven that I did no such thing," Culley said.

Her lawyer filed a lawsuit Sept. 21 to get the seized hard drive back, and 30th District Judge Jeff McKnight set a hearing for Jan. 19, 2022.

"No criminal case has been filed against Ms. Culley. No forfeiture has been initiated," Sellers wrote in the lawsuit.

Lyde faced legal tangles of his own Thursday.

He was arrested on two class A misdemeanor charges of official oppression and appeared on the roster of his own jail briefly. A judge granted him a personal recognizance bond.

A Clay County grand jury indicted Lyde on the charges, according to documents filed Monday in the Clay County District Clerk's Office.

A Texas Ranger carried out a warrant for Lyde's arrest a little after 9 a.m. Thursday, court records show.

Lyde is accused of keeping a man and a woman in jail over 48 hours on July 12 without obtaining a probable cause finding from a magistrate, according to court documents.

The sheriff maintains his innocence and took issue with the media coverage of his arrest in his weekly update on Facebook Live, conducted Thursday after he was granted the personal recognizance bond.

Ashley Culley Dismissal by Denise Nelson on Scribd

More: Why was this former Wichita County IT worker, who faces a criminal charge, fired?

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news, politics and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Clay County charge against Ashley Culley dismissed