CLARK COUNTY — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and attorneys with his office filed a complaint Friday in Clark County court seeking to recover public funds related to the ongoing criminal case against former sheriff Jamey Noel.
The attorney general’s office also filed for an injunction and temporary restraining order preventing Noel, his associates and family members from liquidating assets not yet seized including personal property.
The attorney general’s office filed the complaint against Noel, who is facing 25 felony counts, as well as former Scott County Sheriff Kenneth Hughbanks and Auto-Owners Insurance Company. It’s primarily based on findings from an Indiana State Board of Accounts audit released in February that called for Noel to pay back more than $900,000 in misused jail commissary funds.
According to the audit and also documented in warrants released by the Indiana State Police, Hughbanks was paid $262,567 in “unsupported expenditures” as a consultant. Those payments were made from the prison commissary fund from 2015-2022. Noel served as Clark County’s sheriff during that time, and was in charge of the jail and its funds. Rokita states in the complaint that Hughbanks and Noel are responsible for the amount, referring to the money as “ill-gotten gains unjustly and wrongly received.”
Rokita states in the complaint that totaling losses and expenses incurred by the county and state auditors, Noel is responsible for more than $1.2 million. He also calls for more than $560,000 from Hughanks and Noel for damages, court costs and attorney fees.
The attorney general also claims that Auto-Owners and Noel are liable for more than $918,000 in insurance bonds and coverage from expenses incurred while Noel was sheriff and president of New Chapel EMS.
In the separate motion filed in Clark County Circuit Court, Rokita is requesting a judge issue a temporary restraining order and injunction to keep Noel from liquidating assets. According to the court document, Noel and his wife, Misty, who is also facing felony counts in the case, recently sold property at 722 E. Court Ave. in Jeffersonville, and are attempting to sell a home in Naples, Florida.
Rokita states Noel has duplicate titles for vehicles and may be attempting to sell them. Several of the charges and ISP warrants in his criminal case center around claims that Noel illegally purchased and sold vehicles by using New Chapel funds.
The attorney general’s office is asking for an order to keep Noel from selling additional properties including at 709 Old Salem Road in Jeffersonville, 3001 Old Tay Bridge in Jeffersonville and the Florida property.
Additionally, the attorney general’s office is seeking to keep Noel from selling any additional vehicles, aircraft or watercraft, machinery, jewelry, clothing and art. The order also calls for keeping Noel from using “stores of cash, stocks, or bonds” he owns personally or jointly.
“Should the sale of these assets go through, Jamey Noel could effectively prevent (the state) from recovering the funds that have been misappropriated, diverted and/or misapplied,” Rokita stated in the court filing.