Over 37 counts, totaling more than $15,000, filed against former maintenance department office manager; additional charges filed against her husband and daughter
A former county employee and two members of her immediate family have been arrested for allegedly using county-issued financial cards to make thousands of dollars in unauthorized transactions for personal gain.
This case of suspected embezzlement centers on Tracy Smith Perry, a 55-year-old office manager for the county’s maintenance department who had spent nearly three decades in the county’s employ before her termination earlier this month. Perry currently faces 37 felony charges for her alleged misuse of county government resources since at least 2020 to make personal transactions worth more than $15,000. Also accused of benefiting from Perry’s alleged malfeasance are her 57-year-old husband William Walter Perry and her 25-year-old daughter Kaycee Marie Perry – each of whom has been charged with multiple felonies.
The office of Alamance County sheriff’s office formally announced the trio’s arrest on Tuesday for charges that were officially filed on Friday, July 19. Yet, the events that led this family’s current legal entanglement apparently began three weeks earlier when Tracy Perry incurred another, as-yet-unpublicized set of felony charges for her allegedly unauthorized use of a county-issued gas card.
Court records indicate that the sheriff initially arrested Tracy Perry on June 28 for the felony violations of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretense. These charges pertain to offenses that occurred 20 days earlier when Perry reportedly used a county-issued financial card to purchase $50 of gas from Sheetz for her personal vehicle.
A 55-year-old white female from 101 Kingwood Court in Graham, Perry was initially released on a written promise to appear in court after her arrest on these two charges. On the same day, however, the county’s personnel office placed Perry on unpaid leave for the “misuse of county property and county funds in violation of county policy.”
According to Cheryl Ray, the county’s personnel director, Perry was eventually terminated on July 3 “for the same reasons” that she had been benched. According to Ray, Perry had joined Alamance County’s staff on November 29, 1999 and was most recently employed as an office manager for the maintenance department with an annual salary of $53,580.02.
In the wake of Perry’s dismissal, the sheriff’s office apparently continued to review Perry’s activities – which culminated in a whole host of new charges against the former county employee and her next of kin.
According to court records, the sheriff’s office obtained four more arrest warrants on July 19 that lay out another 35 felony charges against the maintenance department’s long-time office manager. These charges concern offenses that reportedly date back to October 17, 2020, although most of the dates in these warrants appear to be approximations.
The violations cataloged in these warrants include 15 counts of embezzlement by a public official for Perry’s alleged misuse of a county-issued Visa card and a gas card that she was able to access as the office manager for the county’s maintenance department. Perry also faces 15 felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense, four counts of accessing a county computer with the intent to defraud, and one count of conspiracy to obtain property by false pretense.
According to one warrant, Perry had used her departmental card 10 times on January 1, 2022 for items ranging from hardware supplies to utility bills. These transactions allegedly included purchases from Walmart in the amounts of $725.16, $1,933.12 and $5,551.05; purchases from Home Depot for $278.26, $1,080.41, and $2,496.94; and a “Pink Pad” from Amazon whose cost doesn’t appear in the warrant.
The warrant also accuses Perry of using the card to make a payment of $148.50 to Spectrum for TV and cable service, $99.77 to Duke Energy for electrical power, and $56.18 to the city of Graham to settle her water bill.
Another warrant, which details offenses that allegedly occurred on January 1, 2023, enumerates various gasoline purchases that Perry reportedly made using a county issued gas card. These transactions, which were all tendered to Sheetz and the Shell gas station chain, were reportedly in the amounts of $97.01, $451.80, $986.03, $1,102.91, and $1,365.30.
Meanwhile, another of the four warrants describes four instances when Perry allegedly tried to cover her tracks by making false entries into the county’s computer system. These violations include the alleged use of her assigned county computer to purchase the aforementioned Pink Pad from Amazon, as well as her use of the computer “to change and edit” her personal bills from Duke Energy, Spectrum, and the city of Graham.
A final charge against Perry accuses her of conspiring with William and Kaycee Perry to obtain property under false pretense from Sheetz. According to the relevant warrant, this alleged skullduggery occurred between December 3, 2023 and June 8, 2024.
The sheriff’s office has also obtained separate warrants against both of Perry’s alleged co-conspirators for their apparent roles in the scheme to defraud the county.
Husband also charged
Court records indicate that, on July 19, the sheriff’s investigators obtained an arrest warrant against William Walter Perry for his alleged role in the alleged conspiracy. The warrant, which was served on July 22, also accuses the 57-year-old white male, who shares Tracy Perry’s home address, of three counts of obtaining property by false pretense. According to text of the warrant, William Perry committed these crimes by using a county-issued gas card to make two $50 gas purchases from Sheetz and a third in the amount of $54.
According to the county’s personnel office, William Perry was himself a long-time employee of the county’s 9-1-1 center before he retired on October 1, 2020. Originally hired on August 1, 1998, Perry reportedly served as a 9-1-1 supervisor with a base salary of $58,268.13 when he hung up the figurative receiver.
Daughter also charged
Court records indicate that sheriff’s office also obtained an arrest warrant against Kaycee Marie Perry on July 19. According to the text of the warrant, the 25-year-old white female, who hails from 1221 East Main Street in Graham, not only took part in the conspiracy to defraud the county but obtained property by false pretense on seven separate occasions. The warrant goes on to enumerate gas purchases from Sheetz in which a county-issued gas card was debited for sums of $35, $38, $38.80, $42.51, $44, $45, and $49.
Court records indicate that Kaycee Perry was formally served with this warrant on Tuesday, July 23. The 25-year-old Graham resident, who was initially jailed without bond, also has another, apparently unrelated charge pending against her for simple assault.
Court records reveal that no bond has been issued for Tracy Perry since her latest arrest on July 22, while William Perry has been placed under a secured bond of $100,000.
The sheriff’s office notes that it has managed to recover some of the ill-gotten goods that Tracy Perry and her relatives allegedly obtained at the county’s expense. According to the sheriff’s office, the case against the Perry family remains under investigation.
