Courts & Crime

They’re behind the scenes, staffing the recycling center, cutting grass and stringing Christmas lights. They’re polite, hardworking and hard to miss in their orange shirts.

These county jail inmates do a lot of work around Oldham County as part of the jail’s work detail program. Inmates logged more than 29,700 hours of work from January to August this year.

The latest charge in a string of Oldham County cases against falsified school enrollment was filed Friday.

James Elliot, who lives near Ky. 146 and Factory Lane, is charged with falsely enrolling his child in South Oldham High School.

Dan Orman, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, said his office tried repeatedly to reach Elliot and even sent home a letter with the child.

In fact, it was the student who provided the correct address to school administrators.

The office manager of Centerfield Elementary School is charged with stealing a drug similar to Ritalin from a student.

Shelly Marie Settle, 43, of La Grange, is charged with narcotics theft and endangering the welfare of a minor. According to police, Settle allegedly removed 10 dexmthylphenidate pills from a student's prescription bottle and replaced the pills with baby aspirin on Monday afternoon.

Dexmthylphenidate, like Ritalin, is a Schedule II narcotic commonly prescribed for children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Police are warning Oldham residents of a possible scam this week involving home security systems.

A resident reported to Oldham County Police on Wednesday that he received a phone call from a solicitor offering a free home security system valued at $1,300.

The homeowner declined the offer.

The caller probed about the homeowner's schedule, even as the homeowner continued to say he was not interested in the security system.

The caller insisted that he would have a technician call back to discuss installation.