The tab just keeps growing for former circuit clerk Shelly Ashley-Palmertree.
On top of more than a half a million dollars at the heart of drawn-out litigation in Hinds County Chancery Court, the ousted clerk on Thursday had another $229,880.01 added to charges of improper activity against her by State Auditor Stacey Pickering.

Pickering said his office served her with a civil demand for the amount based on fees he said she withdrew from the office’s civil and criminal fee accounts during calendar year 2013. Broken out, he said the amount includes $203,327.79 in principal; $18,669.23 in interest; and $7,882.99 in investigative costs. He said it brings the total amount of demands issued to her to $1,048,131.76.
“While this portion of the investigation is now more than two years old, we will continue to protect the taxpayers of Warren County,” Pickering said in a statement. Accounting procedure issues in the circuit clerk’s office date back to the start of Palmertree’s term, in 2004, according to county audits.
Monday, Warren County Board of Supervisors declared the circuit clerk’s office vacant after investigators with Pickering’s office produced documents that showed Palmertree had declared residency in Madison County last July and planned to purchase a home in Canton. Greg Peltz was named interim circuit clerk out of four candidates interviewed late Monday.
Supervisors meet Tuesday to set a special election date to fill the office for the remainder of the term, which runs through 2015. It’s expected the board will simply add the race to the Nov. 3 general election ballot that includes federal, judicial and other local races.
Two cases involving financial misconduct in Palmertree’s office remain active despite Monday’s vote to vacate and replace her.
The civil case, which Palmertree filed against Pickering and Warren County in March 2013 and was later countered, is set for a third round of testimony Oct. 6 before Hinds Chancellor Dewayne Thomas. The clerk and the other entities have asked the court to decide whether she owes $671,751.75 in excessive salary and questionable subcontractor payments to her father and predecessor in office, Larry Ashley, between 2006 and 2011. Mediation ordered in the case after testimony in December broke down in January. Demands to pay $156,500 for exceeding in 2012 the state-set $90,000 annual fee cap for circuit clerks was issued after the suit was filed.
A criminal embezzlement case against Palmertree goes to trial Sept. 29 in Warren County Circuit Court before appointed Judge Henry Lackey, according to the Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case. In it, the state says Palmertree inappropriately transferred funds from her office’s criminal and civil accounts to her personal account on two separate occasions in 2012. The amounts total $12,000.