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Former Chester County Sheriff Carolyn Welsh and former deputy Harry McKinney were arrested on November 23, 2020, following a Grand Jury investigation, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.
The investigation revealed that because Chester County reportedly did not have the budget to support a K-9 unit as large as the one that Welsh and McKinney sought to create, they used on-duty deputies to perform volunteer work for the K9 unit fundraisers when they should have been working their daytime jobs, Shapiro said.
Welsh also reportedly awarded the deputies who volunteered for fundraisers outside of normal business hours with compensatory time, which was then used by the deputies to take days off of work while still being paid by the county, Shapiro said.
In addition, the Grand Jury revealed that McKinney used over $4,000 of the funds raised to cover the expenses of a personal pet that was not a working canine, Shapiro said.
“Welsh and McKinney took advantage of their positions of authority, and illegally used public resources meant to serve the residents of Chester County to staff private fundraisers,” Shapiro said.
“Enforcing the law does not put you above it. We will continue to shut down corruption wherever it is found.”
Welsh and McKinney both pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of Theft of Services and Theft by Unlawful Taking.
Their sentencing is expected to take place at a later date.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Megan Madaffari.
Since taking office in 2017, Shapiro has made 87 public corruption arrests, his office reports.
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