Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1903 — TAX-FERRET WORKMAN GUILTY. [ARTICLE]

TAX-FERRET WORKMAN GUILTY.

Judgment Rendered Against Him In Owen County For Pocketing Fee*. A judgment was rendered against Joseph B. Workman and his bondsmen in the Owen circuit court this week for $821.85 for fees collected by him while auditor of Owen county, and which fees he is alleged to have stuck down in his jeans instead of turning them into the county treasury, as the law requires. When the action was brought, last October, the amount sued upon was for nearly $5,000, but the statute of limitation had run out on some items, and only the above was held against him. The suit grew out of an investigation of the county offices of Owen county, which showed that Workman had done considerable “grafting” while auditor there. Mr. Workman js the gentleman now engaged in investigating the tax-payers of various counties in Indiana, under the auspicies of the boards of county commissioners, and seems to have a decided success in collecting back taxes from decedents’ estates, widows, orphans, etc., but occasionally runs up against a snag in the shape of some one who refuses to submit to his findings and stands suit. In such cases —at least it has been so here —the courts have held that he could not go back and make a re-assessment of property, and he has lost out.