Arrest warrant issued for Bullitt County lawyer accused of stealing from grieving families

by Lauren Adams

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. — For weeks, Hillview Police Detective Chris Boone has poured over hundreds of pages of checks.

"There's one for $12,000, $10,000, $71,000. There's a $30,000 deposit," Boone said, flipping through the photo copied pages.

Boone says they were all signed by lawyer John Schmidt during his time as Bullitt County's Master Commissioner. But instead of helping people settle their estates, investigators say Schmidt was stealing from them.

"There was people relying on these payments from their estates and were told to trust the system the money will come to you as it’s supposed to and their money was missing," Boone said.

In one case, an estate set up for a man, and passed to his children when he died was cleared out. Debbie Cain says Schmidt went to the bank and emptied out her sons' $247,000 account.

"When I found out about this furious is an understatement. I mean, I was livid when I found out that money was gone," Cain said.

According to court documents filed just this week it appears those thefts go back almost 20 years. In fact, it was a state audit done back in 2004 that first noted there seemed to be a misappropriation of funds.

"The thing that really bothers me about this is the amount of time it went on and the amount of time it went on without being addressed when it should have been addressed. A lot of these people wouldn’t be in the position they’re in if this would have been addressed when it was first an issue," Boone said.

That's victims like Cain's sons. They were defrauded in 2019, the same year Schmidt was removed from his position. Investigators say it was long after the damage was done. They believe he got away with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I just, God, I hope they catch this man, I really, really hope they get him," Cain said.

The warrant for Schmidt's arrest is for charges of theft and abuse of public trust. Anyone who might have been a victim or knows the whereabouts of Schmidt is asked to call police at (502) 955-6808.

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Arrest warrant issued for Bullitt County lawyer accused of stealing from grieving families