The Summit County Sheriff’s Office believes someone has been using a jail bank account to make years of fraudulent payments to a telecommunications company.
Back in March, deputies got a search warrant to look in Verizon’s records to find who may have made the payments.
The warrant shows the payments, totaling more than $40,000, happened once or twice a month from October 2022 to July 2025. The sheriff’s office didn’t say where the account's money comes from, only that it isn’t from taxes.
According to sheriff's spokesperson Skyler Talbot, deputies do not suspect any current or former sheriff's office employees are responsible.
"This is being investigated as an external criminal fraud matter and not as an internal personnel investigation," he said.
It’s unclear when and how the sheriff’s office first became aware of the unsanctioned payments.
Talbot declined to comment further because the investigation is ongoing. He said the sheriff’s office recognizes the importance of transparency and will provide more information when there’s no risk it could compromise the investigation.
