Lexington, Nov. 22—The Davidson county grand jury late today returned an indictment against F.E. Sigman, former register od deeds, charging him with failure to perform the duties of his office. The indictment is divided into 12 parts but some 20 or more specific allegations of mishandling of forms are made. In addition he is charged with failing to make entries of orders which the indictment says should have been made.
The county commissioners recently brought suit against Sigman and his bondsmen for $5,000, the amount of bond required for this office. The defendant has not yet made answer to the allegations in this action, which claims that approximately $6,500 was improperly handled.
The major portion of the trouble arose over the reindexing of records in the register of deeds’ office, which cost the county over $14,000, which amount the auditor who recently completed a checking of the county books considered an excessive amount.
It is alleged that Sigman made out a number of vouchers to J.B. Thorpe, who has the contract for the index work, indorsing them himself and deposited the funds in banks or took cash.
It is also alleged that the stubs in the voucher books and the vouchers themselves in a number of instances failed to correspond, the vouchers being larger than shown on ?? minutes.
Mr. Sigman resigned the office of register of deeds May 12, 1922, to become postmaster of Thomasville, which office he now holds. Prior to that time he had also been county Republican chairman. He was elected to office in 1920 by over 1,100 majority, perhaps the largest majority ever received by a candidate in this county.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Friday, November 23, 1923.
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