In January of this year, the Barren County Fiscal Court voted to hire a private investigator by the name of Mike Ober to conduct an investigation of the Barren County Jail.  The purpose of the investigation was to question employees of the jail about physical abuse, sexual misconduct, misappropriation of funds, and other concerns the fiscal court had about operations at the jail.

At last night’s Barren County Fiscal Court meeting, Mike Ober gave his report on the investigation, however, due to possible legal ramifications of witnesses and the fact that much of his interviews were done in conjunction with the FBI, Ober gave a summary report of his findings rather than the full, inclusive report with specific names.  Ober explains his reasoning…

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WCLU News has edited the following audio due to time constraints of Mr. Ober’s report.  Ober, a licensed private investigator of 18 years, has worked on many criminal cases, and was appointed by the Governor of Kentucky to sit on the Board of Licensure of Private Investigators.  Ober says in his opinion, the Barren County Corrections Center is being run “more like a good ole boys club than a county office”.  This is an edited version of his report.

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Once the report was finished, magistrates had several questions for Ober and County Attorney Jeff Sharp as to what to do with the information.  Based on the opinions of Sharp and Ober, the court voted unanimously to turn the information over to the FBI, rather than also submit the investigation report to Kentucky State Police.  If, in fact, the information resulted in state criminal charges, the information could become public and names of those interviewed would be released.  The court voted to secure the information with the FBI, who has already been active in the current investigation of Barren County Corrections Center operations.