MT County Commissioner Facing Embezzlement, Official Misconduct Charges
Granite County Commissioner Scott Adler has been summoned to a court appearance this month on one charge of Official Misconduct and one charge of Theft by Embezzlement after the Department of Criminal Investigation looked into accusations that Adler had used county equipment and employees to install recycled asphalt on his personal driveway. In court filings, Department of Criminal Investigation detective Jeff Vittatoe says he listened to a County Commissioner meeting from October 3 (view above).
At the time, Adler said his property was being used to “test” the asphalt and the equipment, but Vittatoe’s investigation found the material and equipment had already been used in at least three other places without issues. The investigation found that the driveway project took four county employees six hours to complete and nearly 12 dump truck loads of material.
Adler has repaid the county $1,450 for the work, but Vittatoe found that that repayment was too small and that the description of the work was “greatly understated.” Vittatoe says that the measurements used for reaching that sum were “less than one half the actual measurements” of the driveway work.
Both of the charges against Adler are misdemeanors, but will be processed in District Court because he is facing an Official Misconduct charge. This may not be the end of the court cases either, Adler says the other Granite County commissioners signed off on the project.