Live Oak County Auditor Tragina Smith is free on $10,000 bond after being charged with theft by deception.
Live Oak County Sheriff Larry Busby said that Smith’s case does not stem from her duties as county auditor.
Instead, Busby says that Smith, 55, was divorced and that the divorce decree ordered her husband to pay half of the cost of county health insurance premiums for their children.
Each year, Smith would inform her husband of the amount needed for his part of the premiums. Busby said that from 2011 to 2016, Smith overstated the amount needed by about $11,000.
Theft by deception is a state jail felony. Smith was indicted yesterday and turned herself in today.
Busby says the county auditor works under the district court judges in Live Oak County, so a visiting judge set the bond and will hear the case.
