Sheriff’s Office pins timecard arrests to increased oversight

Two Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office custody sergeants now face embezzlement charges for allegedly collecting pay for hours they never worked — and county leaders say the arrests are the direct result of tougher financial oversight adopted over the past year.

Jeffrey Koeller, arrested Aug. 6, is the second Sheriff's Office employee charged with embezzlement in 2026, following the January arrest of fellow custody sergeant Segun Ogunleye. Together, the two are accused of fraudulently claiming roughly $268,000 — $93,000 for Koeller and $175,000 for Ogunleye — in earnings for hours they did not work, according to the Santa Maria Sun.

The case came into public focus at the Board of Supervisors' Aug. 18 hearing, where Undersheriff Brad Welch told supervisors the new layers of review are what surfaced the alleged fraud — and would catch it again.

How the arrests unfolded

According to the Sheriff's Office, Koeller's arrest followed an investigation of more than 600 time cards containing overtime entries. Those time cards came under scrutiny after Ogunleye's Jan. 29 arrest, which itself stemmed from an investigation that began in October 2025.

The timeline matters. About a month before that investigation launched — in September 2025 — the Board of Supervisors asked the county Office of the Auditor-Controller to begin auditing time sheets, including coding and accounting practices, for both custody and patrol deputies in the Sheriff's Office, according to a county staff report cited by the Sun. Then, in February, the board directed the Auditor-Controller's office to provide monthly overtime reports for the Sheriff's Office in response to a trend of rising salary and overtime costs.

At the Aug. 18 hearing, 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps pressed Welch on the connection: "Just so I understand, the extra scrutiny that has happened over the last year-plus has led to this arrest? Would you agree that that has been the sequence of events?"

"Absolutely," Welch replied. "We would catch that in the future if, heaven forbid, this ever occurred again."

Overtime use has dropped sharply

The oversight appears to be reshaping more than just the fraud cases. When 1st District Supervisor Roy Lee pulled the August overtime analysis from the board's consent agenda, it was to highlight a steep decline in the Sheriff's Office's overtime usage — from an average of 794 hours per pay period between July 2025 and December 2025 down to 409 hours per pay period between January and June of this year, a drop of nearly half.

The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to accept and file the August report.

The numbers are significant for county taxpayers. Sheriff's Office staffing covers the county's jails and unincorporated communities — including areas around Santa Maria such as Orcutt and the Santa Maria Valley — and overtime costs there had been trending upward before the board intervened. With monthly overtime reporting now standard, supervisors have a running view of how those dollars are being spent.

'One individual does not reflect the great work'

Welch was quick to separate the alleged misconduct from the broader workforce, telling supervisors that crimes by Sheriff's Office employees are rare.

"I can tell you that it's very rare that a member of the Sheriff's Office or the county family is accused of committing crimes," Welch said, noting he could think of only a handful of cases in the last 27 years. "But I can tell you that under the direction of this sheriff, if it's pointed out, we will investigate it thoroughly. And if warranted, we will prosecute them to the absolute fullest extent of the law."

He added that "everybody comes in and works their tail off day and night, so this one individual does not reflect the great work that they do."

"There's nothing worse for a police officer or a deputy sheriff to be working with somebody who's committing a crime," Welch told the board.

Capps, for her part, acknowledged the toll such cases take inside an agency while crediting Welch's transparency. "I understand the ripple effect it has on a team to understand that behavior was occurring, but I appreciate the forthrightness that you bring to this conversation," she said. "And the results speak for themselves. I appreciate the continued work that this takes and understanding that there's some more work to be done."

What it means for Santa Maria

For Santa Maria residents, the developments touch two pocketbook concerns at once: how county tax dollars are spent, and confidence in the agency that patrols unincorporated parts of the valley and staffs the county's jail system, where both defendants worked as custody sergeants.

The episode also marks a shift in how the county watches its largest public-safety budget. What began in September 2025 as a board-requested audit of deputy time sheets has evolved into monthly Auditor-Controller reporting on Sheriff's Office overtime — a rhythm of oversight that supervisors signaled will continue.

Both criminal cases now move through the courts, with the Sheriff's Office indicating it will pursue prosecution to the fullest extent. Meanwhile, the auditor's monthly overtime reports will keep arriving at the Board of Supervisors, giving county residents a regular, public accounting of how one of the region's biggest workforces is paid.

Koeller and Ogunleye are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.