CLARK COUNTY — A former Clark County Auditor’s Office employee is heading to prison.
Robert Vanderhorst, 63, pleaded guilty to one count of theft and one count of theft in office in August. As part of a plea agreement, a third count was dismissed.
News Center 7 was in Clark County Common Pleas Court Thursday morning when Vanderhorst was sentenced to seven years in prison.
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The investigation into Vanderhorst started after one of his co-workers noticed something wasn’t right with an account they didn’t recognize.
Prosecutors previously told News Center 7 that he used his public position and trust he built up over the years to help steal the money.
“He created a dummy corporation that he had the only access to the bank account. He would cut himself checks, cash those checks and then take the money from the dummy corporation and put it right back into his accounts,” Dan Driscoll, Clark County Prosecuting Attorney said.
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As part of the agreement, prosecutors and the defense agreed that he stole more than $750,00, but less than $1.5 million. The thefts happened between April 2005 through January 2021.
“He never apologized,” Driscoll said after the sentencing Thursday. “[He] would just take money from the county.”
A judge previously ordered Vanderhorst to pay over $1.8 million in restitution and cost of prosecution, which his lawyer Jon Paul Rion called a “fair resolution.”
Investigators seized bank accounts, retirement money and a car to pay a bulk of that money back.
With his conviction, Vanderhorst will never be able to hold public office in Ohio again.
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