Ex-clerk indicted on embezzlement charges in Stone County

WIGGINS, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi circuit court clerk has been arrested. It happened Monday, days after a grand jury indicted him on four counts of embezzlement. Jeffrey O’Neal was the Stone County circuit clerk from 2016 to 2020. The state auditor’s office says it issued a demand letter to O’Neal for $335,356. That’s for money allegedly misspent, plus interest and investigative expenses. Court records on Monday did not immediately list an attorney who could speak for O’Neal. He’s accused of embezzling money by writing checks to himself instead of to the Stone County general fund. He’s also accused of taking money that should have gone to crime victims.