BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County Comptroller's Office was back out Friday with another extensive financial review of the Erie County Clerk's Office and an update on the amount of missing money from the office which now runs into six figures.
2 On Your Side spoke with the comptroller to find out more about what else his staff has turned up.
Comptroller Kevin Hardwick said right off the bat, "We think someone's taking some money from the county clerk's office."
That original suspicion even stronger now for Hardwick and his staff with more findings from their extended review of finances for the Erie County Clerk's Office run by Clerk Mickey Kearns.
Hardwick says his office staffers originally found over $13,000 missing from checking the clerk's office records for two months, January and December, in 2022. But they decided to look further at the rest of 2022 and the first six months of this year, so that missing money amount has grown to over $114,000.
Hardwick also said they found what they feel to be deliberately altered financial documents in the clerk's office.
"We've handed over these smoking guns if you will to the sheriff's office, so now it's just up to the sheriff's office to put together those smoking guns with whose fingerprints are on those smoking guns," Hardwick said.
The sheriff's office does not comment on investigations, but we know Hardwick and Clerk Mickey Kearns both called for the sheriff and district attorney to investigate, and the state comptroller's office is involved as well.
Hardwick feels there might be even more.
"Someone — us, the state comptroller, private firms — someone is going to need to go back further to find out how much more money is missing," Hardwick said.
Clerk Kearns only responded late Friday afternoon with a "grave concerns" statement that the comptroller putting out more information jeopardizes the investigations.
Hardwick told us earlier, "I don't see how that happens. The evidence is the evidence, and what we have are dozens of altered deposit tickets. I'm sure that the clerk isn't happy about everything that we've uncovered."
Comptroller Hardwick added: "What bothers me is is that in the meantime there's someone still on the county payroll getting a county check who is responsible for all this."
Kearns told county legislators in July he needed funding to hire staff and upgrade his record keeping technology.
The comptroller's office is separately auditing the mortgage receipts tax collections in the clerk's office, and results are expected in September.