A former Barbour County sheriff will now be an inmate at the corrections facility he once oversaw.

Leroy Upshaw was sentenced to 10 years split to serve three for using his office for personal gain according to Attorney General Steve Marshall. He will also have to pay a $30,000 fine.

According to Marshall’s office, “Upshaw stole $32,135.85 by writing checks to himself and having a subordinate write checks to him.”

Allegedly, the checks were drawn off Sheriff’s Office funds that were meant for law enforcement and for the care of inmates within the county.

After the investigation, the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts found Upshaw personally liable for $29,000 and ordered him to repay it. Instead of paying the debt back personally, however, he repaid the Sheriff’s Office with $29,000 of Sheriff’s Office funds.

Marshall, in his announcement, thanked the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts for its help in the case.

He also credited the special agents of his Special Prosecutions Division who investigated the case, as well as Assistant Attorneys General Jasper B. Roberts, Jr., James R. Houts, and Nathan W. Mays.

Upshaw was Barbour County’s sheriff from 2007-19. He was indicted by a Barbour County grand jury in early 2021 after the attorney general’s office opened an investigation against him.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.