		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="109460728"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div>
<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>High profile Alabama sheriff is charged with theft and corruption for ‘stealing over $29,000 of inmate money&#8217; </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, 70, has been charged with 11 counts of theft and abuse</strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>The veteran law enforcement officer allegedly stole $29,050 of inmate money which stored in a jailhouse safe </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>On several occasions he called his assistant at the jail and asked her to wire him cash from the safe </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>Blakely &#8216;eventually&#8217; gave his assistant 19 checks from his personal bank account to replace the inmate funds </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>However, the sheriff allegedly asked her to hold the checks for several weeks before depositing them so that his account would not be overdrawn </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>Blakely allegedly stopped the practice in mid-2016 after he received more than $900,000 into his bank account </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>It&#8217;s unclear where that cash came from, but his lawyer implied that Blakely won hundreds of thousands of dollars </strong></h2>



<h2 class="has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style="color:#3d3636"><strong>The veteran lawman has been the county sheriff since 1983 </strong></h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Mike-Blakely-3.jpg" alt="This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Mike-Blakely-3.jpg" width="850" height="478"/><figcaption><strong> <strong><strong>Sheriff Mike Blakely</strong> is charged with 11 counts of theft and abuse, accused of &#8216;borrowing&#8217; $29,050 in jailhouse money over three years</strong></strong>. </figcaption></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A high-profile sheriff in Alabama called his assistant from a Las Vegas ;casino and ordered her to wire him cash stored in a jailhouse safe, according to testimony in court Tuesday. <br>The bombshell allegation was made during the trial of Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely who is charged with 11 counts of theft and abuse, accused of &#8216;borrowing&#8217; $29,050 in jailhouse money over three years. ;<br>Prosecutors claim the sheriff &#8216;abused his position for personal gain by obtaining interest free loans from the safe&#8217; between 2013 and 2016. Most of the money purportedly belonged to inmates. ;<br>Blakely, who has served as county sheriff since 1983, pled not guilty to all charges, but faces automatic removal from office if convicted. ; <br>Ramona Robinson, who previously worked as a Limestone County jail clerk, testified Tuesday that she wired Blakely $500 at the Palace Station Casino in Sin City on November 8, 2014. ; ; ;<br>She claimed her boss requested she wire more money the following year when he returned to the same casino. ; Robinson told the court she did not know Blakely what he needed the funds for.<br>&#8216;I didn&#8217;t ask, and he didn&#8217;t tell,&#8217; she stated, ;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.al.com/news/2021/07/sheriff-took-29000-in-loans-from-inmate-cash-alabama-argues-in-corruption-trial.html">AL.com ;</a>reports. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Mike-Blakely-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-385231" width="828" height="516"/><figcaption><strong>Personal piggy bank in the jailhouse safe: Prosecutors contend that Blakely only stopped taking &#8216;loans&#8217; from the inmate safe partway through 2016, when a sum of more than $900,000 was mysteriously deposited into his account around the same time</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Blakely&#8217;s defense team seized on that, arguing that the sheriff may have needed the money for law enforcement purposes. ; ; <br>The defense told the court that it is impossible to prove that Blakely used the cash for personal reasons. ; Blakely &#8216;eventually&#8217; gave her 19 checks from his personal bank account to replace the inmate funds, Robinson said. ; However, the sheriff allegedly asked her to hold the checks for several weeks before depositing them so that his account would not be overdrawn. ;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Palace-Station-Casino-in-Sun-City-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-385232" width="841" height="458"/><figcaption><strong>Ramona Robinson, former Limestone County jail clerk, told the court that she wired Blakely $500 while he was gambling at the Palace Station Casino in Sin City on November 8, 2014</strong></figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Limestone-County-Sheriffs-office-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-385233" width="842" height="393"/><figcaption><strong><br><strong>Gambler and lawman: Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely has been charged with 11 counts of theft and abuse after he allegedly &#8216;borrowed&#8217; $29,050 of jailhouse money over a period of three years</strong></strong>. <strong>The money, most of which belonged to inmates, was stored at the jail ; in the Limestone County Sheriff&#8217;s office</strong></figcaption></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Prosecutors contend that Blakely only stopped taking &#8216;loans&#8217; from the inmate safe partway through 2016, when a sum of more than $900,000 was mysteriously deposited into his account. ; <br>It is unclear where the money came from. ;However, Blakely was known to be a gambler and won a whopping $250,000 in Tennessee that same year. ; <br>His attorney, Nick Lough, insinuated that his client may have won the lottery: &#8216;Is it illegal to win the lottery?&#8217; ; Lough asked in court. ; <br>Blakely&#8217;s trial will continue this week. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><br></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>

Alabama sheriff faces corruption charges after calling assistant from a casino and asking her to wire cash from the jailhouse safe – Mike Blakely, 70, is charged with theft and corruption for ‘stealing $29,000 of inmate money’
