Craighead County Judge Marvin Day speaks out about former County Clerk Kade Holliday's arrest

JONESBORO, Ark- Craighead County Judge Marvin Day is speaking out about the arrest of former County Clerk Kade Holliday.

Judge Day says more investigations and audits will be conducted to see potentially if more money was stolen.

“He was the only signer on the account, he was the only one receiving the bank statements,” says Craighead County Judge Marvin Day. “He’d also apparently learn the system that you had to keep a certain amount ahead or too far behind and then, various state agencies would contact me. Yes, it was all under Kade’s control.”

Holliday was arrested last Monday and charged with 12 counts of theft of property, and abuse of power.

He is accused of diverting over $1.5 million dollars in funds to his personal bank account.

He appeared in court the next day and was given a $150,000 bail but must follow a list of terms including surrendering all firearms and his passport.

Judge Day says he was saddened at first by the situation and felt as if Holliday violated his trust.

He says they are conducting more audits.

“We have an accounting firm looking at 2019 with more scrutiny and looking to see if there are anymore problem areas,” says Judge Day. “They’re helping us with potentially another investigation but really mostly to help us develop proper procedures for accountability going forward.”

The Quorum Court met Monday night to accept Hollidays registration and are officially start the search for his replacement.

District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington says he can’t remember in the past 20 years when he's had another abuse of power charge in the county.

Judge Day says they will have new practices put into place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“Instead of going to the clerk, bank statements will come through my office, the Treasurer Office or maybe even both to provide that accountability.” says Judge Day. “The other thing that we found really yesterday you can get a receipt for a payment. So, we’re going to make sure that receipt is then returned to the Treasures Office to provide proof that the check the treasurer wrote to the clerk to make sure that money was used for what it was supposed to be used for.”

Judge Day says he participated in a state county clerk judges phone conference today, where they brought up Holliday’s situation. He says they discussed how to prevent similar situations moving forward.

We have also learned that the Northeast Arkansas Leadership Business Council has also accused Holliday of stealing funds during his term as treasurer for the non-profit.

Holliday will appear in court again on July 27th.