She is running for sheriff. Her husband is sheriff. Both face felony charges.

In the blocks surrounding the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office ahead of the primary election, campaign signs decorate Frankfort neighborhoods.

Two candidates were well represented: Republicans Brendon Bright and Jacob Myers.

But few yards had signs for the third candidate, a prominent county name: Ashley Kelly.

Ashley and her husband, Richard Kelly, who is the current sheriff, are embroiled in fraud lawsuits related to payments made to Ashley in her role as the jail’s matron and commissary manager.

The Clinton County Commissioners, Indiana State Police and Indiana Attorney General’s Office have tried relentlessly to convict the couple on misconduct and malfeasance charges, following allegations that they pocketed more than $200,000 from county
jail accounts.

The couple has adamantly denied those charges for years, with Richard previously calling them a “political farce” and Ashley writing in a recent Facebook comment that she “did nothing wrong.”

The Kellys did not respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s requests for comment.

She remains on the ballot for the Republican primary May 5, despite new separate charges being filed recently in Marion County and the Clinton County Commissioners firing her.

On April 17, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges accusing the Kellys of official misconduct, specifically alleging that Ashley committed fraud against the Indiana State Police Pension Trust Fund by taking disability checks even though she was not disabled. That case is set for a jury trial this summer.

The couple was already scheduled to go to trial May 11 in Clinton County on charges of felony official misconduct.

Following the new charges in Marion County, the Clinton County Commissioners voted to adopt a new anti-nepotism policy, which immediately resulted in Ashley’s formal termination. Previously, the commissioners had twice asked Richard and Ashley to resign.

“I know the question has been, ‘Why now?’” Clinton County Board of Commissioners President Jordan Brewer said at the April 21 meeting. “We’ve given Rich, the elected official, multiple opportunities to do what is right in his department, and he’s chosen to ignore all of that.”

For Commissioner Bert Weaver, it showed “honor” and “respect” to ask the Kellys to resign. Had they done so, the fight would have drawn less attention and publicity.

“Nobody wants to be where we are today,” Weaver told The Indiana Lawyer. “But at the same time, all three of us commissioners have a job to do, and all of the council have a job to do, and all of us have taken an oath to do the best we can and protect our county, and all of us take that oath pretty seriously.”

Ashley’s attorney, Mario Massillamany of Fishers-based Massillamany Jeter & Carson LLP, earlier this week declined to comment on the case since a trial is currently pending.

Both Ashley and Richard, in separate motions last week, requested a change in venue from Clinton County, citing “public hostility” that they say would limit their ability to have a fair trial, according to WTHR.

Charges on charges

In 2018, Richard was elected as Clinton County’s sheriff. On Jan. 1, 2019, he took office and hired his wife to serve as the county’s jail matron. The move followed that of his predecessor, former Clinton County Sheriff Jeff Ward, who also hired his wife for the role.

According to Indiana law, jail matrons are responsible for receiving, searching and caring for all female prisoners and boys under the age of 14 detained in the county jail or other county detention center.

Richard also appointed Ashley to serve as the jail’s commissary manager. The commissary is a sort of in-jail shop, where prisoners may buy goods, such as snacks, with money wired in from family or friends.

Richard appointing his spouse to manage the commissary was not out of the ordinary; according to court documents, former Sheriff Ward also appointed his wife as commissary manager, in addition to her matron position.

Over the next two years, Ashley increased the commissary’s annual revenue by “tens of thousands” of dollars by adding products for inmates to purchase, Ashey said in court documents.

E-cigarettes and other tobacco substitutes were products that significantly bolstered the commissary fund.

According to an Indiana State Board of Accounts’ audit report, from 2019 to 2020, E-cigarettes accounted for $146,565 of the commissary’s total merchandise sales.

Then in February 2021, the Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Public Corruption Unit and the SBOA received a complaint from the Clinton County Prosecutor’s Office regarding Richard’s use of the commissary funds.

The SBOA then conducted a nearly yearlong investigation, in which investigators analyzed documents, conducted interviews and examined financial records of the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office for the period of Jan. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2021.

For the dates investigated, the SBOA discovered that $32,967.92 in checks were issued to Ashley from the Sheriff’s Office’s jail commissary fund without a written agreement to support or authorize the payments.

An additional $190,916.61 in checks was issued to Leonne LLC, which the SBOA discovered the Kellys established on Nov. 27, 2018 — less than two months before Richard took office. According to the SBOA’s audit, Ashley has a 51% ownership interest in Leonne, while Richard has a 49% share.

Since the Kellys worked for the Sheriff’s Office, they were paid out of the County General Fund, the audit stated, and the associated compensation for the sheriff and matron positions was included in the county’s salary ordinance, which the County Council approves.

However, none of the compensation paid to Ashley through Leonne LLC or through the jail commissary fund for her management services was included in the county’s salary ordinance or in any labor contract authorized by the County Council, the audit stated.

“Neither Richard nor Ashley Kelly filed a Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form to disclose their ownership interest in Leonne or to disclose their marital status,” the SBOA audit stated.

According to Indiana Code 35-44.1-1-4, a public servant may be found guilty of conflict of interest, a Level 6 felony, if they knowingly or intentionally have a pecuniary interest in or derive a profit from a contract or purchase connected with an action by the governmental entity they serve.

It’s not a crime, however, if the public servant files an official disclosure. But the SBOA and the Attorney General’s Office have held that the Kellys did not disclose their interest in Leonne to county officials.

According to court documents, the Kellys did later file a disclosure form in October 2021 — two years after they established Leonne LLC and some time after ISP began its investigation into them.

In 2022, a special prosecutor filed conflict-of-interest and official misconduct felony charges in Clinton County against the couple. That case is still pending, with a jury trial set for later this month.

And in 2023, the state opened a civil plenary case against the Kellys, accusing them of malfeasance. A Clinton Circuit Court special judge ruled against the Kellys in the civil case this past fall, ordering them to pay $329,360.47 — a combination of the pecuniary damages and SBOA audit costs.

Weaver, one of the county’s commissioners, said that as of last week, the county had not yet received any of the court-ordered reimbursements. Following their April 21 meeting, the commissioners formally sent a letter to the Attorney General’s Office to try to speed up the process.

While under heat over the past several years, the Kellys have initiated their own legal proceedings against the commissioners and the county’s attorney, Thomas Little.

According to a 2022 complaint charging legal malpractice and defamation, the Kellys argued that they met with Little before Richard assumed office to discuss how to go about hiring Ashley as matron and commissary manager.

The complaint stated Little agreed to file any needed conflict-of-interest disclosure forms for Ashley to serve as jail matron and commissary manager. However, the Kellys argued, he did not file any such form for them.

The Kellys’ case against Little is currently pending in the Clinton Circuit Court.

A new ordeal

A month before their criminal trial, and less than three weeks from the May primaries, Ashley and Richard’s mugshots were plastered on television screens and the web, but not for anything related to Leonne LLC or the commissary fund.

The Marion County Prosecutor’s office has charged them with felony fraud.

The office is accusing Ashley of lying about a past law enforcement-related disability to continue receiving payments from the Indiana State Police Pension Trust Fund. Richard is charged with helping her do so.

According to the probable cause affidavit, which The Lawyer obtained last week, Ashley became an ISP trooper on Dec. 21, 2007. Several years later, she reported slipping on ice while on a weather detail. Although she returned to work about two weeks later, she later stated that the slip resulted in a neck injury, preventing her from performing her duties as an officer.

The affidavit stated that Ashley had been on full disability since Oct. 21, 2015.

During a May 24, 2021, medical examination, Ashley stated that she does not drive due to vertigo, nausea and pressure sensations behind her eyes, and that everyday activities involving her neck or right shoulder can trigger pain, according to the affidavit.

In March 2025, the affidavit states, Ashley was again evaluated for her disability claim, this time by Dr. Robert Gregori. During the examination, Ashley told Gregori that she still had neck pain in the upper back region as well as nausea, vertigo and frequent pain flare-ups. The 2025 examination concluded that Ashley had very little tolerance for wearing a tactical vest or anything that places pressure or weight on her trapezius region.

Based on her assertions and the physical examination, the affidavit stated, Gregori found that Ashley was still disabled from her state trooper position.

While investigating the Kellys’ other criminal case, ISP Sgt. Detective Troy Stanton and Sgt. Detective Joseph White interviewed citizens and Clinton County government officials, several of whom said they believed Ashley was making a false disability claim against ISP.

White stated in the affidavit that they were unable to find witnesses willing to testify against Ashley about their observations.

But on Jan. 8, 2026, two current merit deputies in the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office contacted ISP General Headquarters to report that Ashley is not disabled.

And video and photo evidence obtained from her social media accounts appeared to contradict what she said about her condition, the affidavit states.

For example, in video evidence dating to Sept. 16, 2022, Ashley was shown “vigorously” working out her upper body in the Sheriff’s Office gym, performing exercises that White affirmed as being “inconsistent” with statements she made to examining physicians, in which she claimed that she was unable to perform such exercises due to her past injury.

“Even if Ashley Kelly’s original 2014 injury claim was legitimate, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that she continued to accept disability benefits while knowingly misrepresenting her physical condition,” White wrote in the affidavit.

Voter mindset

Ashley has been quiet on her Elect Ashley Kelly Sheriff of Clinton County Facebook page, last posting April 5 for Easter.

Four weeks ago, she explained in a post that she was not participating in activities required to officially be endorsed by the Clinton County GOP (they included submitting a form and participating in an endorsement committee interview, she said).

“I have been in Law Enforcement for 20 years, most of which have been spent serving Clinton County,” she wrote. “I have developed and implemented programs that have been incredibly successful- for the Sheriff’s Office, the recovery community and the fiscal well-being of our County. These programs have allowed for the purchase of equipment, training and manpower that has increased public safety for the citizens of Clinton County.”

She asked for voters’ support on May 5.

In response to a commentor wondering how she’s permitted to run for office, Ashley said she did nothing wrong.

“The facts are we used professional services, our paperwork was completed and, wait for it, went through a public meeting. All of this information was withheld from us and the public,” she wrote.

The Kellys are not the first public servants and candidate for office to face voters and criminal charges at the same time.

Dubois County Sheriff Thomas Kleinhelter also faces charges of official misconduct, as well as false informing, a Class B misdemeanor, following an investigation into his mismanagement of public funds.

And in 2024, Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel received 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to more than 20 felony charges related to his mismanagement of millions in public dollars.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis, said that voter perception is crucial for a candidate’s likelihood of success at the ballot box.

“Typically, for voters’ minds, if they think you are guilty, the court of public opinion is far more harsh and less fair than an actual court of justice,” Wilson said.

And perception matters especially for sheriffs, a position that holds the name and face of criminal justice in a county, she said.

“Would they [voters] be able to trust someone for this office who has these multiple charges, multiple allegations, too?” Wilson said.

Whoever comes out on top in the upcoming election will likely have a strenuous job to repair the office’s image.

“It’s gonna be tough,” Weaver, the county commissioner, said. “It’s gonna take a long time.”

But even still, Weaver says there has been significant community support for the commissioner’s actions, even from some inside the sheriff’s office.•