Nebraska mayor accused of deceiving state auditor’s office

A Nebraska mayor has been accused of deceiving the state auditor’s office.

A letter from the auditor’s office alleges that Mitchell Mayor Paul Murrell used city-owned vehicles for personal use and received nearly $50,000 for work done by his personal business at Mitchell Care Center, the city’s municipal nursing home.

When questioned by the audit team, Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley said Murrell provided auditors with a sales tax form to assert that he owned the vehicle in question.

Foley said assistance from the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s office and a local farm equipment supplier provided confirmation that the vehicle was city-owned and that the sales tax form was for a different vehicle.

“We're very disappointed, because we believe that the mayor tried to deceive us into thinking that the equipment that he was using was really equipment that belonged to him, and we've now confirmed that it was a deception,” Foley said.

Murrell did not respond to a request for comment from Nebraska Public Media, but In an interview with the Scottsbluff Star-Herald on Tuesday, he denied the allegations and said he used a personally owned vehicle for city maintenance.

The Star-Herald reported that Murrell said he would “take it to the limit” to defend himself against the accusations.

The auditor’s office has no authority to press charges, but Foley said evidence has been forwarded to the Scotts Bluff County Attorney, Nebraska Attorney General and Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Foley said prosecutors frequently take up the evidence he sends them.

“We've built a wall of shame in our office with pictures of all those who've been successfully prosecuted as a result of our other work,” he said. “The wall space is getting smaller and smaller all the time as we fill up with pictures.”

Earlier in the year, Foley said his office has noticed a “disturbing uptick” in alleged fraud from Nebraska local governments. He said Tuesday that the trend has continued to grow.

Foley said his office receives at least one complaint per day from across the state, far too many to take up.

“There’s quite a backlog of things,” he said. “We have to put a filter on all this stuff to make sure it's not just somebody who's aggrieved, or some other reason, trying to get somebody in trouble. You have to filter those out, but the ones that do look legitimate continue to outstrip our ability to research and investigate.”

The auditor’s report is not the first time this year that a Mitchell resident has been in the news for alleged unscrupulous behavior.

Earlier this month, the Mitchell Care Center administrator was charged in Scotts Bluff County Court with theft by unlawful taking following an investigation into the nursing home’s finances.

In April, the city’s police chief was fired after allegedly sending unwanted lewd photos to a woman. Mitchell is now seeking its fourth police chief since early 2023.