Grand Jury Indicts Former Head Of Sevier County Utility District

A Grand Jury has indicted the former head of the Sevier County Utility district on charges of official misconduct and bribery of a public servant. A report from the State Comptroller’s office regarding their investigation into former Sevier county Utility District president Matthew Ballard, showed that Ballard misappropriated at least $181,582 in utility district funds. Their investigation found that Ballard ran a kickback scheme where he had the owner of an electrical company overbill the Sevier County Utility District. Ballard would then get a kickback in exchange. Investigators found 30 such kickback payments that totaled over $150,000. Ballard and his father, William Ballard received the money. Matthew Ballard was also found to have used over $18,000 of utility district money to have work done on his and his father’s private property. The investigation further found that Ballard instructed an employee to write false information on an invoice. That was done to conceal the fact that Ballard was settling a gambling debt.

Ballard is also accused of interfering with the investigation by clearing data from his work-assigned devices and also directing a utility district employee to lie to the Sevier County Utility Board. Matthew Ballard was placed on leave from the utility back in January of 2023 when the allegations of wrongdoing came to light. He as terminated two months later.