A former Owen County Commissioner plead guilty to felony misconduct Aug. 12 in the Owen County Circuit Court.
Dale Dubois, 83, was arrested in November 2021 for using Owen County funds to have a road repaired for his personal benefit. According to an Indiana State Police press release, police opened their investigation in August 2021, slightly more than a year before sentencing.
Court documents said that Dubois wanted to use the road to remove equipment from a job site belonging to his excavation company. Dubois maintained that repairing the road would “ease access to the adjacent property for potential citizens.”
Dubois was initially charged with Official Misconduct of a Public Servant and Conflict of Interest, two level 6 felonies, as well as theft, a Class A misdemeanor. Following his guilty plea and resignation, all but the official misconduct charge were dropped.
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Dubois was sentenced to one year probation, minus one day for time served and another for good conduct. The former commissioner is also required to pay $2,019.49 to the Owen County Highway Department.
Owen County spent around $1,000 on the project. The county is already almost $2 million in debt because of the former auditor’s failure to collect $900,000 in taxes.
