Dateline: September 20, 2007

Tip leads to arrest of ex-city worker 

A former Clarendon city employee is out on $20,000 bond this week, facing charges of abusing a municipal credit card.

Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn said Anthony Lynn Ballard, age 27, was arrested September 11 by Amarillo police and was arraigned by Donley County Justice of the Peace Connie Havens two days later.

Blackburn said city officials presented his office with gas card bills over several months which showed charges being made after city business hours and in locations outside the city where no employees were on business. Among those locations were charges made in Amarillo, Wellington, and Panhandle.

The sheriff’s office investigated and obtained videotapes from convenience store surveillance cameras. The case was then turned over to District Attorney Stuart Messer’s office, and an arrest warrant was obtained.

City Hall confirms that Ballard was employed by the city until he quit earlier this year.

City Clerk Jeannie Molder said she received an anonymous phone call at the end of July. The caller told Molder that a former city employee had been misusing a city credit card for two to three months and that the city should look into it.

Abuse of a Credit Card is a felony, Blackburn said.