KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A former Knox County Law Library employee was charged with stealing at least $100,000 after a state comptroller's office report said she collected money without showing up to work.
Ashley Satterfield's position with the Knox County Law Library reported to a commission comprising every judge in Knox County. 10News has learned that the commission never met, leaving the position "essentially without oversight," county records said.
The Knox County code of ordinances, in Sec. 46-56, previously said the Knox County Governmental Library Commission would include each judge of the circuit, chancery, criminal, juvenile and domestic relations courts.
On Nov. 21, 2022, the Knox County Commission voted to pass an ordinance moving oversight of the Knox County Law Library from the commission of judges to the Knox County Commission's personnel committee.
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven W. Sword declined to comment on this story, citing rulings he may need to make in Satterfield's case.
"It was a poor setup by the Legislature," said Mike Moyers, deputy law director in Knox County and former Chancery Court judge. "Judges just don't get together and oversee things. Judges are not administrators."
The comptroller's office investigation report said Satterfield collected about $108,444 between 2014 and 2023, even though she didn't work. For example, the report said Satterfield received a full month's pay in July of 2022 but was only at the library for an hour that month.
Satterfield earned $26,154 annually, according to an email in her personnel file.
She resigned her position with the law library on Jan. 27, 2023, her personnel file shows.
"What's expected in a job when someone's left to their own devices?" said T. Scott Jones, Satterfield's attorney. "What is considered to be satisfactory performance?"
Jones said Satterfield was trained by her predecessor.
"This little entity, that's a county entity, that's being overseen by state officials. It just wasn't well designed," Moyers said. "Unfortunately, in any large bureaucratic organization, sometimes you have these these failures, and you try to fix them, plug them and hope it doesn't happen again."
Commissioner Courtney Durrett, the former chair of the Knox County Commission, said commissioners then voted to eliminate the position Satterfield held because it "wasn't a necessity."
The county's law library is in the midst of an overhaul, meant to modernize the space. Durrett said leaders are working on getting rid of out-of-date books, adding computer terminals and setting aside a portion for the public defender's office.