DHS Worker Allegedly Sends Explicit E-Mails During M.E. Investigation

By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- There is new information about the hundreds of e-mails involving the State Medical Examiner's Office.

A NEWS 9 investigation reveals that the woman who allegedly wrote many of them appears to have been making money for a personal business while she was also earning a state paycheck.

Jill Kinney was paid $3,500 to investigate sexual harassment claims within the embattled office of the State Medical Examiner..

"If in fact, these e-mails were generated by Miss Kinney, we're very upset about this," M.E.'s Office Spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard previously told NEWS 9.

Ballard spoke about the sexually explicit e-mails in an interview earlier this month.

"If in fact, these emails came from Jill Kinney and this is the way she conducts herself…We'd like our money back...That's gross," Ballard said.

Jill Kinney is a DHS employee who also owns a consulting business. When the news broke earlier this month, DHS told NEWS 9 Kinney "has an excellent reputation as an investigator. The work that Ms. Jill Kinney performed for the Medical Examiner's Office was done on her own time and unrelated to her work at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services."

But NEWS 9 has obtained Kinney's time cards. It turns out more than three dozen emails were sent during times Kinney was on the clock for DHS.

"All I've heard now is her supervisor is monitoring her emails. Other than that, I haven't heard of any discipline. I can't believe DHS would want someone there such as Jill Kinney," said defense attorney Scott Adams.

Scott Adams is the attorney representing Dr. Collie Trant and Kevin Rowland, both former employees of the M.E.'s office.

He believes the emails prove Kinney was coaching current and former employees on their grand jury testimony, as well as recruiting those employees to file false labor claims and taking a percentage of their payments. All this he said while on state time.

"I really think what needs to happen to Jill Kinney she needs to have the cuffs put on her. She needs to be put behind bars," Adams said.

DHS said the legal department is reviewing the emails, but did not say how or if Jill Kinney will be disciplined.

NEWS 9 also contacted Kinney by phone for this story. When asked if she'd like to do an interview or make a comment, she responded "no comment" and hung up.

A source also told NEWS 9 two investigators, Tim Miller and Matt Hamrick, are no longer with the M.E.'s office because of the emails.

WARNING: Some of the emails are sexually explicit. Read the full emails.