Augusta Mayor arrested on misdemeanor charges of theft

Augusta Mayor Jeff Collins was arrest by Arkansas State Police (ASP) Thursday afternoon on charges of misdemeanor theft.61-year-old Mayor Jeff Collins was arrested after the ASP Criminal Investigation Division lead an investigation into allegations of misappropriated funds within the city of Augusta. The investigation started with a letter from Woodruff County senior deputy prosecutor John Bell in March. In the letter, Bell references an Arkansas Legislative Audit of Augusta for 2020 through 2022, claiming findings of the audit showed “certain city officials may have engaged in unlawful conduct in a number of areas.”

The audit found extensive utility write-offs, $300,000-plus in expenditures without authorization, thousands of dollars in questionable credit card charges, and “thousands of dollars in unexplained or inadequately documented disbursements.”

A review of the state legislative audit report confirmed the allegations, including utility write-offs of over $167,000. The audit report also accuses the city of not “timely selecting an accounting firm to complete financial audits of the City for six calendar years” through 2022.

The city’s response to the allegations was included in the report, which noted that the city had addressed all the lapses and was developing policies and procedures to prevent them from occurring again.

Collins was booked and released from the Woodruff County jail on a Class A misdemeanor theft of property charge.

His first court appearance is set for October 15th.

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