Audit: Clerk in town of 500 misappropriated $300,000

A state audit released today accuses the former clerk of a tiny town in remote northeast Missouri of spending more than $300,000 in taxpayer money on concerts, vacations and other personal needs. Tracey Ray, the former clerk of Center, Missouri, hasn't been criminally charged with financial crimes, but she is facing four felony charges for an exchange of gunfire. The shooting injured the Ralls County sheriff and a deputy on July 2, 2019, the day city officials questioned her about financial concerns. Ray also was injured. She was fired the next day. Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway calls the alleged financial wrongdoing “egregious.”