Wilbarger County jail administrator arrested

The Wilbarger County Sherriff’s Office jail administrator was served an arrest warrant Tuesday, June 27, on a charge of theft $30,000 to $150,000.

Jessica Leann Kuehn, 34, of Quanah, was taken into custody at the Wilbarger County Courthouse upon the issuance of a warrant of arrest and detention signed by Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Clint Nava.

The warrant was issued at the request of Texas Ranger Matt Kelly, who investigated the case leading up to Kuehn’s arrest.

In the complaint Kelly presented to Justice of the Peace Nava, Kelly stated that Kuehn, “…on or about the 12 day of January, 2023, in Wilbarger County, Texas, did then and there commit the offense of Theft $30,000 – $150,000, Texas Penal Code 31.03(F)(5) against the laws of the State.”

The complaint filed by Kelly states that he was contacted by the Wilbarger County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy JR Ritter on Jan. 18, 2023, who advised Kelly that Kuehn had confessed to the “…theft of several thousand dollars from the jails inmate commissary funds. He (Ritter) stated during an interview with Kuehn, she admitted to the theft of approximately $7,000.00 from the kiosk inside of the jail.

“On 01/26/2023, I (Kelly) conducted a non-custodial interview with Kuehn. During the interview Kuehn admitted she began to take cash from the jail kiosk in August 2021. Kuehn stated she could not recall the amount of money she had taken from the inmate fund. Kuehn admitted that the missing cash deposits from the kiosk since June 2022, were taken by her. She stated she would take the cash to Wal Mart and load it onto her PayPal card.”

Following Kuehn’s admissions to Kelly, he requested the Wilbarger County auditor to reconcile the inmate funds account from April 20, 2021 to Jan. 12, 2023, which revealed missing cash deposits in the amount of $64,172.60.

Kuehn was booked into the Wilbarger County Jail following her arrest Tuesday and was subsequently released on a $2,000 bond.