Traci Sharp, Landis, N.C.
♦ After reading the letter sent to Rowan Free Press from Crystal Lineberry, I’ve decided to share my experience with the Rowan County Sheriff Department and some its past administration.
In 2002, my son Cody was diagnosed with Myelodysplasia, which is a type of pre-leukemia. The doctors informed us at Baptist Hospital, his only option was a Bone Marrow Transplant. After several weeks of receiving blood and platelets at Baptist we were transferred to Duke Hospital in Durham. During his illness and subsequent transplant in 2003, a fund was set up and a “yard sale” was done through the Rowan County Rescue Squad to help pay for his medical expenses. After hearing from several people wanting to know if “I” had received any of the money for these medical expenses, I had to tell them no. Since this fund was setup on behalf of my son, who at the time was 6 yrs old and I was the custodial parent, I decided to check into the situation on his behalf.
As soon as I started inquiring about this fund, I was immediately referred over to the Rowan County Rescue Squad’s attorney. At this point I contacted Bill Kennerly (District Attorney) and advised him of the situation. Through the DA’s office, I was then given a detective’s name with the Sheriff Department. After talking with the detective and advising him of this situation, he started looking into it himself. Both the detective and I were met with a lot of resistance from the Rescue Squad and their attorney. It was then decided, to have an outside auditing firm to look into it. The auditing firm looked into it and found that “it was a gross misuse of funds”. In the meantime, before all of this could be sorted out and gotten to the bottom of, two with the past administration got involved. They gathered all the investigative paper work from the detective and I was advised, per these two, that “it would be in my best interest to drop the matter and not bring it up again”. So, over $20,000 was raised for my son for medical expenses and none of the money went for those expenses. The investigation was shut down immediately and to this day, no one has been held accountable.
Given my past experience with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department and hearing of others experiences I will be placing my vote and trust in electing Brian Kiever, the next Sheriff of Rowan County.
