Former Clay County election director facing felony fraud charges
LIBERTY, Mo. — A Clay County woman who was wanted for fraud was arrested more than a thousand miles away in Montana.
Patricia 'Patty' Lamb, the former Clay County Republican Election Director, faces felony charges of fraud and fraudulent use of a credit device stemming from an October 2023 investigation.
Court documents accuse Lamb of stealing more than $15,000 from Clay County during her time with the Election Board. That includes $8,126 in non-business-related charges and charges with no receipts, $1,336 in expense reimbursements for mileage that had no supporting documentation, $200 in petty cash payments, and $6,278.40 from two unexplained payroll checks.
Former Leavenworth mom charged in relation to baby's death
It started in September 2023 when someone with the Clay County Election Board discovered Lamb made charges to her business credit card that had nothing to do with the Election Office. Board members put her on leave a month later and hired Fox Forensic Accounting to complete a forensic audit report on Lamb's expense reports, credit card statements, and payroll from 2021 to 2024. She was ultimately terminated in January 2024.
From there, a warrant was issued for her arrest after she failed to appear in court in the fall of 2024. Court documents state authorities tried to contact her for an interview but felt she may have left the area or state.
Police in Belgrade, Montana took her into custody after being contacted by the Clay County Sheriff's Office. It's not clear what Lamb was doing in Montana when she was arrested on Wednesday, February 19.
The Clay County Election Board sent FOX 4 a statement, which said:
'The Clay County Board of Election Commissioners in a financial review discovered what appeared to be questionable transactions being made. The Board conducted an initial investigation. Based on the investigation, the Board took immediate, appropriate, temporary and permanent personnel action. Further, the Board contracted with an outside forensic accounting firm for a comprehensive financial review. Irregularities were discovered. Additionally, the Board conducted an in-depth review of job responsibilities-which resulted in increased oversight in Board operations. The Board forwarded the information gathered on the irregularities to the Clay County Sheriff's Office.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Inhumane:' Latinas for Trump founder condemns White House immigration crackdown
A Miami Republican who co-founded the group Latinas for Trump is condemning President Donald Trump's mass-deportation campaign and blasting recent immigration enforcement actions as harmful. 'This is not what we voted for,' State Sen. Ileana Garcia said in a statement on Saturday. 'I have always supported Trump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane.' The public remarks from one of Trump's longtime supporters come as the president's immigration policies cause stress and uncertainty in South Florida. Trump's executive orders and the Department of Homeland Security's actions have targeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the region, including Cubans and Venezuelans — communities that threw their support behind Trump during the November election, helping him win Miami-Dade County. As top White House aide Stephen Miller reportedly demands 3,000 immigration arrests a day, federal agents in Miami and across the U.S. are swooping into courthouses to detain people and place them in quick deportation proceedings that don't require a judge. With Trump casting a wider immigration-enforcement net, Latino Republicans in South Florida are balancing their support for the White House and their constituents. Next week, Miami's GOP delegation in Washington is slated to meet with Trump's Homeland Security secretary. READ MORE: ICE agents in Miami find new spot to carry out arrests: Immigration court 'I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings—in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims—all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal. This undermines the sense of fairness and justice that the American people value,' said Garcia. Garcia criticized Miller, widely considered the architect of Trump's immigration agenda. She said in the statement that her parents, Cuban refugees, 'are now just as American, if not more so than Stephen Miller.' 'I will not back down. I am committed to being vocal and proactive in seeking real solutions, not engaging in grandstanding like Stephen Miller,' she told the Miami Herald over text. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the administration's record, saying that 'any illegal alien who is deported from the United States receives due process, and if they have pending asylum claims they are adjudicated by USCIS prior to any removal.' 'President Trump is fulfilling his promise to deport illegal aliens and the American people are grateful,' she said. She also noted that Trump was the first GOP presidential candidate in nearly four decades to flip Miami-Dade County, pointing to a CBS/YouGov poll conducted one year ago that shows 53% of Hispanics supported starting a program to deport all undocumented immigrants. A more recent UnidosUS study from April found 78% of Hispanics said the Trump administration should focus on deporting dangerous criminals, not law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are long settled in the U.S. Garcia's statement came a day after GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar — a strong Trump supporter whose district Garcia represents in Tallahassee — made her own public declarations about the federal immigration agenda. In a separate statement, Salazar said that people navigating their immigration cases, like pending asylum or green card petitions, deserved to 'go through the legal process.' Salazar, who is Cuban-American, described herself a proud Republican and said that the administration must fulfill President Trump's promises to 'kick out every criminal here illegally.' But she said the 'uncertainty' in her largely-Hispanic district had left her 'heartbroken' and said recent measures threatened due process. 'I will always stand with justice and with our community,' Salazar wrote on X. Salazar said that the Miami delegation in Congress, which includes Reps. Carlos Giménez and Mario Díaz-Balart, will be meeting with Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem next week. The lawmakers have been requesting a meeting with Noem for weeks. Garcia has supported Trump since his first bid for the office in 2016 and created Latinas for Trump to rally Hispanic women behind the president. She also served as a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term in office. On Saturday, Garcia said over text that she hoped to meet with the president, who she described as sympathetic to Cuban political refugees from Cuba and immigrants who came to the United States as children. 'While I stand by my support for him, I will call out harmful actions when necessary,' she said. 'And finally, this isn't about regrets; I have none. It's about addressing issues directly and taking responsibility.'
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Escobar: GOP budget bill would cut health care, give breaks to rich
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Republican budget bill — often called the 'big, beautiful bill' by supporters of President Donald Trump — would cut health care, nutrition programs and explode the national debt, said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. The bill, which has passed the U.S. House and is being discussed by the Senate, would also give 'massive tax breaks' to the 'millionaire and billionaire class,' Escobar said. That was one of the messages that Escobar delivered during a town-hall meeting Saturday, June 7 at Horizon High School in Horizon City. Escobar said that the town-hall meeting was an opportunity to listen to consituents, talk to them and answer their questions. She said the Republican budget bill is the big topic of converstation and concern. 'It passed out of the House a couple of weeks ago. The Senate is working on it now,' said Escobar, who voted against the bill when it came up before the U.S. House in late May. 'It will result in cuts to health care benefits, cuts to nutrition programs. It will explode the national debt, all of this in order to give the millionaire and billionaire class massive tax breaks,' Escobar said. 'It is important for people to understand what is in the bill,' Escobar continued. 'We still have an opportunity to stop it and kill it on the Senate side and come up with a bipartisan product that reflects our nation's values.' The Trump Administration's plans to 'pause' the Job Corps program, including a center here in El Paso, is 'devastating news,' she added. 'The reason they gave for the pause in the program were financial issues that happened with the program during the pandemic,' Escobar said. She added that she wasn't sure why the Trump Administration was targeting the program. A lawsuit has been filed against the 'pause' and the move is likely to be found illegal by the courts, she added. Michael Aboud, the chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, called Escobar a 'tax-and-spend Democrat.' 'I don't understand why she would want El Pasoans or anyone to pay more taxes,' Aboud said. 'Our taxes are already way too high. She is upset because President Trump is cutting waste and is going to reduce our taxes. 'I don't see how you can be against that. I think it is nonsensical, unless you are greedy and just want to spend the people's money,' he added. Escobar has represented Texas' 16th Congressional District since 2019. She announced in April that she will be seeking another two-year term. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tom Homan Says Trump Admin Sending National Guard to L.A. Over ICE Protests
Donald Trump's 'Border Czar' Tom Homan said Saturday the administration is planning to send in the National Guard Saturday evening to quell protests in Los Angeles. 'This is about enforcing the law, and again, we're not going to apologize for doing it,' Homan said on Fox News. He continued: 'We're already ahead of the game. We were already mobilizing. We're gonna bring National Guard in tonight. We're gonna continue doing our job. We're gonna push back on these people, and we're gonna [enforce] the law.' On Saturday night, following Homan's on-camera remarks, both national Democratic and Republican figures were scrambling to figure out if he was just mouthing off, or if the federal troops were actually on their way, or just … what the hell was going on. Two Trump administration officials say they learned about the alleged National Guard plans from journalists such as Rolling Stone's who had reached out to them on Saturday evening, asking for clarification. Homan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. 'The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers,' California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote on Bluesky Saturday evening. 'That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.' He added, 'LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need. The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.' The president can request, but not order, a governor to deploy their state's National Guard. The governor can refuse the request, and Trump would not be allowed under the Constitution to send National Guard troops to California from other states. However, the Trump administration has previously mulled invoking the Insurrection Act, which could allow the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically, federalize the National Guard, and send in troops to quell uprisings or civil disorder. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for Newsom. In October, weeks before the election, Trump spoke about deploying the military and National Guard against 'radical left lunatics,' to deal with 'the enemy from within.' On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained hundreds of people in the city, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Saturday marked a second day of protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration's immigration policies and roundups. Videos showed law enforcement shooting non-lethal rounds Saturday at protesters and using flash-bang smoke grenades. Video from about an hour ago as less than lethal rounds are being used against protesters in Southern California — Acyn (@Acyn) June 7, 2025 At the ICE raid and subsequent community resistance, this skater kid ate dozens of munitions from Border Patrol agents, walked away slowly and flipped them off. — Jeremy Lindenfeld (@jeremotographs) June 7, 2025 Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass posted on X Friday that her office had received reports of ICE in the city. 'These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city,' she wrote. 'We will not stand for this,' she wrote. 'We will,' FBI Director Kash Patel replied. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, on Saturday called the protests 'an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.' He was writing in response to a video of protesters surrounding a federal detention center. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon for 20,000 National Guard troops to play a role in deportations. They would be used for 'guard duty and riot control,' NPR reported Friday. This would be the first time the National Guard is asked to carry out an immigration crackdown within the country, according to Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. In 2020, the Trump administration deployed out-of-state National Guard troops during protests in Washington, D.C. following the murder of George Floyd. This move was 'unprecedented,' according to Joseph Nunn, counsel in the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program. 'Trump has brought complete chaos to our communities,' Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tells Rolling Stone. 'We were promised that violent non-citizens would be deported. Then he deported a U.S. citizen child with cancer. Yesterday ICE mistakenly detained a deputy U.S. marshal. Nobody asked for this. And Americans are starting to say enough. It's time for Trump to pause his cruel immigration policies and come to Congress with a transparent and competent plan.' More from Rolling Stone 'Dejected' Trump Says Relationship With Musk Is Over; Calls Him a 'Big-Time Drug Addict': Report Vance Says 'Trump Didn't Do Anything Wrong With Jeffrey Epstein' Dropkick Murphys and Veterans Rally Against Trump for 'Disrespecting the Vets' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
