Holly Henegar
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested a Marion County couple on theft charges for allegedly stealing money from two local government agencies that employed them.
The arrests were made after the couple was indicted by the Marion County Grand Jury on Monday.
Holly Henegar, 53, of Jasper, is the former Marion County election commissioner and was indicted on one count of theft over $10,000 and official misconduct.
Through the course of an investigation, the TBI revealed that Ms. Henegar improperly issued more than 100 county payroll checks to 34 individuals for work that was not performed at the election office between July of 2003 and March of 2010.
Nine of the individuals who received checks were under the age of 14.
There was approximately $27,000 missing from the election office.
Ms. Henegar was booked into the Marion County Jail on $7,500 bond.
Billy Joe Henegar, 68, of Jasper, is the former secretary/treasurer of the Haletown Volunteer Fire Department and was indicted on one count of theft over $60,000.
Through the course of the election commission investigation, the TBI discovered checks written from the election office to the Haletown Fire Department which resulted in a request from the district attorney general in April 2010 for TBI to investigate the fire department’s books. Approximately $94,000 was found unaccounted for.
The cash shortage resulted from Henegar’s paying personal expenses as well as cash donations and county contributions being withheld from deposit into the fire department’s bank accounts, the TBI said.
The personal expenses included payments on credit cards, utilities, computer equipment, food purchases and cellular phone services.
Henegar was booked into the Marion County Jail on $10,000 bond.
The State Comptroller’s Office assisted TBI in the investigations.
Billy Joe Henegar