ATHENS, Ohio — A grand jury will decide today if it will indict Athens County Jobs and Family Services Director Jean Demosky on a charge of theft in office, a third-degree felony.
Demosky was arrested and appeared for arraignment in Athens County Common Pleas Court on Friday, April 3. Judge George McCarthy set Demosky’s bond at $500,000. She was released on her own recognizance.
At the arraignment, Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said his office anticipates filing additional charges against Demosky.
Prosecutors allege that Demosky, in her official capacities as director, created and operated the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services Community Cares Fund, a separate, private nonprofit organization.
“Demosky is accused of creating a shill nonprofit using county resources, staff, buildings, equipment and funding to provide goods to ineligible recipients including her own family member,” a press release from the prosecutor’s office released Friday said.
On Friday morning an Athens County Sheriff’s Office felony investigator filed a complaint against Demosky, alleging that theft in office began in September 2022 and continued through the present. The complaint states that the estimated value of stolen “property or services” is greater than $7,500, a third-degree felony.
A grand jury is set to convene Monday, April 6 and a preliminary hearing is set for 3 p.m. Thursday, April 9.
The Independent has been following Athens County Jobs and Family Services’ financial situation since late 2025, when the organization reduced operating hours and later laid off employees. The county owes nearly $2.6 million in repayment to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Judge McCarthy denied Blackburn’s request for Demosky’s bond to be set around the amount she allegedly stole, which prosecutors say is an estimated $1.8 million.
“Approximately $1.5 million of that was [from] Back to School Bash, Winterfest, Operation Full Belly, and which, instead of serving the people that actually qualified, she gave it to everybody, including her family. And that made that ineligible for reimbursement,” Blackburn said at the arraignment.
Demosky has been on leave as JFS director since Wednesday, April 1, Blackburn said.
In a March 19 email to Blackburn, Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel and Athens County Auditor Jill Davidson, a JFS employee said the state determined Athens JFS came to owe $2.6 million as the result of about $2.8 million in “incorrect TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] adjustments.”
TANF is a state-run program with specific eligibility requirements for its clients, which the government describes as “families with children experiencing low income,” aimed to help them “achieve economic security and stability.”
JFS is federally funded. The state uses a system called random moment sampling to determine how much money, and to which cost pools, it allocates the federal funds. Random moment sampling is based on the random review and coding of an individual agency’s activities.
According to IRS records, the Athens County Department of Job & Family Services Community Cares Fund is a tax-exempt organization that filed 990-N tax returns because it reported under $50,0000 in annual gross receipts.
In an April 3 email the Independent obtained through a public records request, an independent auditor told Chmiel and Davidson that the state’s financial analysis indicated that expenses at Athens JFS were being charged improperly.
“This seems to be the result of commingling the activity of JFS and the not-for-profit,” the independent auditor wrote.
