CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Like many people, Jasmine Nunez was a little lost when she went to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse to file for divorce back in April.
When a clerk offered to help her navigate the paperwork, she agreed, and began signing.
“The front page did say there was a fee that I was already prepared to pay. So when he asked for it, I went to the ATM, handed him the money and he printed a receipt out,” Nunez said.
That receipt showed she paid the clerk $240 in cash and got $5 change.
Nunez didn't think anything was wrong until she went back to the courthouse several days later and spoke with another clerk about her case.
“I told her that I'd already paid. And she was like, 'Do you have proof?' I showed her this receipt that he gave me and she said that we're going to have to talk because this wasn't a real receipt,” Nunez said.
In fact, the so-called receipt, printed on a full sheet of paper, looks a whole lot like a copy of another one Channel 9 found in another divorce case that that same clerk handled a month later. The two receipts even have the exact same number.
“A very big red flag, because the receipts can't have the same number,” Tim Wood said. Wood worked in the clerk's office for 18 years, most of them as a supervisor, until he retired in 2016.
He said it would've been difficult for any supervisor to catch that red flag, because those bogus receipts weren't in the files.
Instead, the clerk allegedly had Nunez and at least one other applicant fill out a petition claiming to be indigent, meaning they couldn’t afford to pay the fees.
“Having them sign an indigent petition to waive the fees, without their knowing what it was and then pocketing the cash. That's exactly how it would appear,” Wood said.
Channel 9 went to the clerk's home several times, and left a message on his phone, but have not heard back.
Channel 9 learned he was fired back in June for employee misconduct.
Clerk of Court Elisa Chinn-Gary declined to speak on camera, but said in a statement that following an internal investigation, their findings were referred to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation.
The SBI confirmed that they are aware of the allegations, but could not say if they were conducting a criminal investigation.
Jasmine Nunez’s divorce is final, but she said what she went through to get it still hurt.
“I've paid everything with my own money, which was really hard, so that's upsetting,” Nunez said.
Wood said the implications reach far beyond one person or one case.
“It angers me that someone would do that,” he said. “It lowers the public's opinion of the office and their trust in the courts, their trust in the state government. It's a very terrible situation.”
Cox Media Group
