Indictment: Previous Greenup sheriff stole from department
Jan. 20—Former Greenup County Sheriff Keith Cooper stole thousands of dollars from his department, according to a recently unsealed federal indictment.
Cooper, 68, now living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was indicted Jan. 13 by a grand jury sitting in Covington on one count of mail fraud and one count of theft of property from a federally funded agency.
According to his indictment, Cooper began embezzling money from the Greenup County Sheriff's Office in 2013, until March 2017.
The indictment states Cooper made cash withdrawals from the asset forfeiture fund — which is the proceeds from seized properties from a drug investigation that can only be used for law enforcement purposes — and pocketed the cash, to the tune of $50,000.
In order to cover his tracks, Cooper would keep the seized cash and items from drug investigations in his office, rather than an evidence locker, according to court records. He then told his deputies to prepare false police reports that he provided to state agencies looking into the missing money, records show.
Those falsified records were sent in March 2017 to the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General, records show.
Cooper also made orders for ammunition that couldn't be shot in the duty weapons, then had them taken to his house, records show.
That worked out to about $30,000 worth of ammunition — about 35,000 rounds — according to U.S. Attorneys.
After being told to turn over the ammo paid with tax dollars back to the county in 2018, Cooper gave some back, but kept the rest in a storage unit, records show.
After leaving office, records show the ammo sat in the storage unit.
The indictment also alleges during 2018 Cooper used his official vehicle to take personal trips to Colorado, Alabama and Tennessee, charging more than $2,000 on the sheriff's office fuel card.
If convicted, Cooper could face up to 20 years on the mail fraud count and up to 10 years on the theft charge.
The case was investigated by the FBI Louisville Field Office and the state AG's office.
(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com
