The audits of the southern Ohio local governments covered 2006 and 2007.

Former Rutland Police Chief Jeffrey Miller forged the mayor's signature and illegally cashed two checks made out to cash totaling $400 that were drawn from the village's Law Enforcement Trust Fund, Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor said in a news release.

Miller was charged with theft in office in November. The fund is supposed to be used for police work.

In Valley Township, auditors identified more than $15,000 in findings for recovery, or money owed the township, by former and current employees.

The audit lists four separate findings against former township fiscal officer Bonnie Turner.

According to the audit: She voided a township check for $7,645, reissued herself a new check and cashed it; she accepted cash payments totaling $3,700 for the purchase of several township cemetery plots and didn't deposit the money with a bank; she illegally used $2,353 in township funds to pay her personal home telephone bills for two years; and she owes the township $171 for a cell phone and accessories that she failed to return after she resigned.

The audit found that her husband, Larry Turner, the former township fire department safety officer, must repay $1,237 in township funds that he spent illegally on his personal cell phone in 2006 and 2007 after his position was terminated Jan. 10, 2006.

The audit also found that their son, current township worker Jonathan Turner, owes the township $106 for a cell phone and accessories that he failed to return following a reassignment to other job duties.

Mrs. Turner said neither she nor her family did anything wrong, and that it is the trustees' responsibility to sign off on spending decisions.

"I never took anything that didn't belong to me," she said.

"I was clerk for 37 years and never had any questions arise one way or another, and I never had any findings against me."

She said she left the job about a year ago after losing her re-election bid in November 2007.

mlane@dispatch.com