FORMER BLUE SPRINGS EMPLOYEE ACCUSED OF STEALING ANTI-DRUG FUNDS

A former Blue Springs employee is accused of stealing more than $41,000 of
Jackson County anti-drug money and depositing it in his bank accounts.

Joe Mick, 31, now of Pella, Iowa, was charged June 5 with three felony
counts of stealing without consent. The charges were announced Wednesday.

From July 1998 to July 2001, Mick worked at the Blue Springs Youth
Outreach Unit, a group associated with the Police Department and funded by
the city and the school district. He obtained and coordinated grants,
making him a civilian employee and not a police officer, according to the
Police Department.

The alleged thefts involved grants from Jackson County's COMBAT programs,
which are designed to fight drugs and crime.

Patrick Peters, Jackson County special prosecutor, said officials learned
of the missing money only because it was sent to the city first.

"It went to the governmental authority and from there to the organization,"
Peters said. "If it had gone directly to the organization, no one would
have known."

Most grants go directly to organizations and there is little
accountability, Peters said.

"It sure makes you wonder about the billions that are disbursed the other
way," Peters said.

The city's Finance Department discovered discrepancies and notified the
Police Department, police spokesman Mike Kruger said.

Mayor Greg Grounds said that Finance Deparatment workers "discovered a gap
in what we thought were pretty safe procedures."

Peters said the youth outreach director was unaware that the unit had
received the grants.

Since the problem has been brought to light, the city has put into place
new measures making such acts more difficult, he said.

According to court documents:

Blue Springs officials noticed that two checks totaling $27,734 were
deposited in the Youth Outreach Unit's bank account. They also noticed that
the same amount was withdrawn from the unit's bank account in June 2000 and
deposited into Mick's personal checking account.

Police later found that another check for $13,333 was deposited into Mick's
other personal checking account on Oct. 26, 2000. The $41,067 in checks
came from COMBAT grants.

Police traced Mick's bank accounts and learned that he had written several
checks from those accounts, including one for $4,500 to a relative, one for
$1,300 to a Baptist Church and one for $613.54 to a cruise line.

Peters said Mick had agreed to surrender on Monday when he is scheduled for
an arraignment.