MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon Municipal Court Clerk Stephanie Hardman was fired because she was unable to determine how more than i$7,000 went missing from her office in 2018, according to her attorney.
Brad Koffel, in a statement sent via email Friday to the News, said that Judge John Thatcher “told (Hardman) that it has been 14 months and she cannot tell him where the missing money is....and he lost confidence in the fiscal management of the clerk’s office.”
Hardman was fired without notice, Koffel writes.
The auditor’s investigation was prompted by allegations of theft from the clerk’s office brought in December. The city’s 2018 audit, performed by an independent firm, determined that $7,749.05 was unaccounted for.
Koffel states that Hardman has cooperated with investigators and voluntarily took a polygraph test in December 2019. The results of the polygraph were forwarded to the state auditor’s office.
Koffel claims that “To date, no agency has been able to identify how the money came up missing or where it went.”
Hardman has been replaced on an interim basis by former Knox County Clerk Mary Jo Hawkins.
