Jerry Glenn Morgan 

A former Lauderdale County road employee is accused of stealing fuel meant for county use and selling it on the black market, the sheriff’s department said Monday. 

Jerry Glenn Morgan of Toomsuba was arrested Friday, charged with embezzlement and has been released on a $10,000 bond, according to jail records.

Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun estimated that Morgan stole approximately $237,000 in diesel over a two-year period. 

Morgan had been responsible for fueling and performing maintenance on county vehicles, Calhoun said. 

He said the investigation has taken several months.

“There have been some suspicions in the past,” Calhoun said. “There had been some monitoring of the Fuelman program.”

County Road Manager Rush Mayatt and purchasing staff discovered Morgan was misusing the fuel card and they contacted the sheriff’s department for investigation, according to Chris Lafferty, the county administrator.  

It’s not clear to whom Morgan is accused of selling the diesel or if more arrests are expected, but Calhoun said the investigation is ongoing. 

“We’re not going to tolerate it and we’ve tasked our county administrator, road manager and purchasing clerk with coming up with better procedures to safeguard against it,” District 1 Supervisor Jonathan Wells said. 

The board approved a motion Monday formally requesting those revised procedures within 30 days. 

Mayatt said Morgan had been with the county seven or eight years and has been terminated from his position. 

“I’m very hopeful and optimistic about correctly preventing this from happening in the future,” Mayatt said. “Now is the time to truly implement new internal processes in which we’ll help control and limit the opportunities for stuff like this to happen in the future.”