County drops McDonald fraud charges
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office announced today that it has dropped all felony fraud charges that were earlier brought against former City of Maricopa Community Services Director Marty McDonald.
The charges were the result of an investigation conducted earlier this year by the Phoenix Police Department, at the request of the City of Maricopa. The investigation alleged that McDonald received around $10,000 in shipping discounts by linking his personal FedEx account to the City’s account.
The two accounts were setup by McDonald, a former FedEx employee, shortly after he was hired as the City’s Parks and Recreation Director back in 2004. McDonald said he did not realize the two accounts were linked until a notice of late payment regarding his account was sent to the City in August of 2005.
At that time, McDonald sent an e-mail to FedEx inquiring as to why the accounts were linked, and asking that they be separated. McDonald assumed the issue would be immediately resolved. However, in December of 2007, the City received another late payment notice. At this time, newly-hired City Manager Kevin Evans asked for an investigation to determine if McDonald was guilty of any wrongdoing. To avoid a conflict of interest, Phoenix Police were asked to handle the case.
At the end of the investigation, Phoenix Police recommended felony fraud charges be filed. The case later ended up in the Pinal County Attorney’s Office.
McDonald’s personal account was used to ship materials for a fantasy football league he was a member of at the time. League officials paid the shipping costs and the City of Maricopa was never charged for anything regarding the personal account.
Back in July, McDonald’s attorney, Clair Lane, forwarded an e-mail exchange between McDonald and Christine Jessee, a FedEx employee, from August of 2005. In the e-mails, McDonald asked that the City be removed from his personal account, and that their two accounts not be linked. Jessee replied that the situation would be immediately taken care of.
Although FedEx does not retain e-mails for longer than 60 days, FedEx officials acknowledged that Jessee was in their employ at that time.
McDonald has maintained his innocence throughout the entire ordeal, and has received a tremendous amount of moral support from the community. He has been on paid administrative leave since May due to City budget cuts.
A short while ago, McDonald made the following statement:
"I am throughly excited, relieved and exhausted from this process. I want to thank my family, my wife and my close friends for their support during these trying and emotional times. I’d also like to recognize the Maricopa community for their hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters of support. The charges were unfounded but we had to let the legal system run it’s course."
"In recent days, the Pinal County Attorney’s office removed the City of Phoenix investigator from the case and took ownership of the case. It was learned by their investigators that there was no case, that all information provided by us turned out to be true and accurate, including the email that exonerated me. There are serious misrepresentations that occurred in the initial investigation that we will get to the bottom of."
"Several questions now arise as to the culpability of the actions of certain people who pushed this case forward. My legal team is currently reviewing additional evidence we have uncovered and we are exploring our options. What we have learned is quite shocking, quite hurtful and downright iniquitous."
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