Former Polk County Sheriff Chris Abril is speaking out about felony charges he faces after being accused recently of stealing a credit card.
Abril, who does not deny using the card, said it was a debit card that belongs to his former sister-in-law. Abril said he has power of attorney for her and has the right to make purchases.
Abril, 50, of 76 Simms Street in Columbus, was arrested on Saturday, May 4 by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and charged with obtaining property by false pretenses, possession of stolen goods, identity theft and unlawfully obtaining a credit card, according to arrest records. Henderson County charged him with two additional felonies related to the use of the card this week. He is scheduled to appear in Henderson County court today, May 11, on those felony charges, and is scheduled to appear in Polk County court again on June 6.
Abril said the whole thing is a misunderstanding.
“This is not fair what I’m going through,” Abril said. “I’ve always been a person who tries to help people.”
Around February of this year, according to Abril, his former sister-in-law told him she was having problems and he took care of her, giving her money and providing her food. He was married for 27 years before getting a divorce and said his former sister-in-law has always been like his sister. He said he gave her money and on March 21, she signed her house over to him as well as gave him power of attorney for financial and medical decisions. Abril said she asked him to take the deed of her house and to have power of attorney, and he immediately signed the deed of the house over to one of his sons.
“I have her debit card and her pin number because she gave it to me,” he said.
Abril said he sent his former sister-in-law money on a few occasions and after returning from a visit to Florida looked for her to make sure she was all right and to ask if she could pay some of the money she owed him.
“I wanted to get my money and make sure she was okay,” Abril said.
The arrest warrant says Abril went into her house and stole the card, but Abril said he did not steal the card. Abril said news reports make it sound as though he is a thief and all he has tried to do is take care of his former sister-in-law.
“Do you think I would use a stolen debit card knowing that cameras were everywhere?” Abril asked.
Abril said he used the card to purchase gas for his truck and lumber at Lowe’s.
Abril said he is working for the landlord of the Copper Mill restaurant in Columbus. He said he had just finished doing some staining work and couldn’t believe it when three sheriff cars pulled up with blue lights. He claims he was handcuffed without officers telling him the charges he was facing.
He was given a $32,000 bond and Abril said friends pulled money together and helped him post enough to get out of jail.
Abril said he’s fighting the charges and has hired Lee Atkins as his attorney.
Abril said he just can’t stand for his kids to go through the publicity of this again.
“As a father I’ve always been responsible,” Abril said. “I can’t stand all this pain for them.”
This is not Abril’s first arrest over the last few years. He resigned as Polk County sheriff in November 2008, the day before he pled guilty to two counts of solicitation to take indecent liberties with a minor for incidents that occurred in 1988 and 1999.
While on probation, Abril was convicted of driving while impaired and a probation violation.