By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The tip of the iceberg in the Ronald J. Epling embezzlement case is marked $1.24 million.

But investigators still have hundreds of documents to wade through in the growing embezzlement case against the former Florence finance director, who police say admitted he opened a personal account 15 years ago to funnel city money into.

A detective in the case said in court Tuesday he thinks some of those documents will show the stealing started years ago, and that the amount will easily top the estimate Mr. Epling, 51, gave of $1 million to $2 million. Kentucky State Police Detective Don Milliken testified Tuesday he didn't know how long it might take before he collects all the bank statements and deposit slips to document the 17 counts of theft Mr. Epling faced in Tuesday's hearing. He said the banks are still looking for all of them.

Those 17 transactions- ranging from $9,280 to $150,000 and totaling $1.24 million - date back to early 2001. But Detective Milliken said he and FBI agents last month confiscated enough documents from Mr. Epling's office to fill the back seat of his police cruiser.

Mr. Epling admitted, the detective said, that all the deposits into his account - which he labeled a "capital improvements fund'' - came from the city of Florence. But in at least seven of the 17 transactions, the amounts deposited fell short of the amounts of the checks police say he took. Detective Milliken could not explain Tuesday where that money - at least $125,000 - went.

Boone District Judge Charles Moore found enough probable cause after a Tuesday court hearing to send the case to a grand jury, but not before he called that unaccounted-for money and lack of documentation "confusing.''

"It's not a nice, neat, tidy bundle that we have here," he said.

Defense attorney Burr Travis emphasized the lack of proof on six of the 17 checks. Without more bank documentation, he said, it's impossible to say what happened to the city money. Detective Milliken said he had not yet had time to look at the city's legitimate capital improvements fund to see if some of the money had actually been deposited there.

Mr. Travis also questioned how so many checks could have gotten through the system, considering all of them had two other signatures on them. Mayor Diane Whalen's name was on them, but Detective Milliken did not know if it was signed by her or stamped by someone else.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com