Published: November 09, 2009 09:55 am      

Contributors' names elude police

Roff — Roff Police chief Glenn Bohanon said several attempts have been made to obtain the names of Ada businessmen who allegedly donated $1,500 to the Roff park committee from Roff clerk/treasurer Janice Gimlin. Gimlin has claimed that $1,500 is missing from the Park Committee that was donated by companies in Ada for Roff’s Fourth of July celebration.

“It’s been requested by the city council several times to turn the names over of the companies that have donated,” Bohanon said. “I have requested them myself, personally, and Mrs. Gimlin has told us that she’s not prepared. She always tells us she’s not prepared. She never provides any names and she can’t provide what companies donated what. Right now, we have no victims, so we don’t have a crime.”

Bohanon said his department can’t follow through with an investigation without evidence.

“One day she just came up with it out of the blue,” Bohanon said. “Like I said, she won’t produce any evidence and it is a police matter. I don’t know if she’s just shooting off at the mouth right now or what, but right now she’s just making some strong accusations with nothing to back it up.”

City Mayor Todd McCaskill said Casey McCaskill and Sharon Spikes, of the Roff Park Committee, have been going over the park committee’s bank records to find the alleged discrepancy. He said once the Roff park committee’s paperwork is completed, city council will meet to discuss the issue.

Casey McCaskill said the park committee asked for items to be donated for the Fourth of July celebration instead of money. She said Gimlin has also alleged that the Roff park committee has been involved in other financial misdeeds in the park committee’s Back-to-School Bash.

“She hates us. It’s been obvious,” Casey McCaskill said. “What’s really sad is that we’ve done a lot of good with the park.”

Casey McCaskill said Gimlin was the head of the Roff park committee before she took over.

“They went two years without even having a meeting,” Casey McCaskill said. “At the bottom of it, Gimlin said she estimates between $500 and $2,000 is missing from the park fund and she thinks the District Attorney ought to be notified. What she said at the meeting was that going by what was received in the past for donations to these events, we should have received somewhere between $500 and $2,000.”

When contacted, Gimlin refused to release the names of the Ada businessmen who allegedly donated the $1,500 or comment on the story, saying, “I’m smarter than all of y’all put together. I am going to go to the District Attorney with what I know. You can do a story but I’m not going to help you. Let them tell you who donated money. They also need to get their story straight because Casey told us at the city council meeting that all the money that was donated to her for the Fourth of July was deposited. Then in a letter to the editor, (another park committee member said), ‘We didn’t get any money. We just got donations.’”

Pontotoc County District Attorney Chris Ross said he has not yet received a complaint or information on this issue.