The Pinal County Sheriff's Office spent more than $53,000 this summer to send 25 people to a weeklong conference in St. Louis where the sheriff received a national award.

Records show about half of the trip was paid by court fees given to the Sheriff's Office to improve county jails. The other half came from seized cash and property meant to fund investigations and prosecutions.

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Sheriff's officials say the funds were used in a manner allowable under statute. But critics see the trip as little more than a junket at a time when Sheriff Paul Babeu claims he's hurting for cash to combat drug cartels and has sought public donations to provide his deputies with rifles.

"It may pass the legal test, but some people may say this doesn't pass the smell test," said Mary Marshall, spokeswoman for the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. "Some people are going to have disagreements about, is this the proper use?"

David Snider, a Pinal County supervisor, said, "Apparently, the sheriff, as we heard, can put the money toward whatever purpose the sheriff deems appropriate. It's an awful lot of people to send to a conference at one place for quite a bit of time . . . It'd be interesting to see if the training sessions at that conference in St. Louis were available in other formats, electronic or closer to home."

More than 7 percent of the department represented the Sheriff's Office at the National Sheriffs' Association annual conference in June. Among them was a school resource officer, at least three detention officers, several deputies and three department volunteers. In years past, Babeu took only a handful of people, mostly administrators, to the event.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office sent one person, the sheriff's personal assistant, at a cost of nearly $1,700. No one attended from the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

John Thompson, National Sheriff's Association deputy executive director, estimated that about 4,000 people attended the event June 18-22. Meetings and seminars were held at America's Center Convention Complex and the nearby Renaissance St. Louis Grand hotel, where Babeu and his group stayed at a cost of $28,885.

Thompson said conference programming was tailored for sheriffs and their command staff, but award recipients typically bring staff members to support them.

In a June 28 memo to the Pinal County Attorney's Office, Babeu described the conference as his staff's "most successful training opportunity" this year, where "training in areas of leadership, investigative skills, building volunteer programs and threat assessment on the Mexican drug cartels were all provided by nationally known experts."

Pinal County employees flew into St. Louis on June 16 and 17. Sheriffs' meetings were ongoing both days, but seminars and committee meetings did not kick off until June 18, a Saturday. The weekend agenda was packed with seminars on topics including "Immigration Detention Reform," "Making the Media & Community Relations Work for You," "Budget Killers - Eliminating Waste in Inmate Medical Costs," and "Sending your Constituents the Right Message Through Traffic Enforcement."

Sunday concluded with the opening general session, where Babeu was presented with the Ferris E. Lucas Award for Sheriff of the Year 2011. A National Sheriffs' Association statement announcing the award in January described Babeu as "one of the most progressive sheriffs in the country," and cited the national attention he's received for standing against illegal immigration and Mexican drug cartels.

Pinal County finance records indicate the trip wasn't all business.

James Kimble, deputy chief of the jails, submitted for reimbursement a receipt for a $33.50 taxi fare to the Anheuser-Busch brewery, where he took a tour during Monday convention hours. When questioned by the county finance department, Kimble explained he submitted the receipt by mistake and would pay it back.

Records show county finance staff also took issue with the following:

-�Babeu used valet parking at the hotel, which was $27 a day. He was reimbursed at the daily self-parking rate of $14.

-�Sheriff's finance manager Teresa Heaton used the sheriff's county-issued travel card to pay $85 each for 23 tickets to the sheriffs' association annual banquet June 22. When county finance asked to be reimbursed for $1,127 over the per diem, Henry argued that the staff was "required to be in attendance at this banquet to represent our office for this very prestigious award." In a July 27 memo to CFO Victoria Prins, Henry said the Pinal Sheriff's Office was being recognized by the sheriff's association as the "Sheriff's Office of the Year." It wasn't, and there is no such award.

The Sheriff's Office issued a news release shortly after The Republic requested finance records for the St. Louis trip. The statement said taxpayers didn't foot the bill, but that it was fronted by the county and paid back with use of jail-enhancement and RICO funds - racketeering money that comes from assets seized in investigations.

"Not one dime of taxpayer money was used for this incredible training opportunity," Babeu said in the release. "I am proud that we used seized criminal money and jail enhancement funds to pay all expenses for training, travel, and lodging. We have also used this money to purchase needed law enforcement equipment and supported community programs to make Pinal County a better and safer place for our families."

State statutes governing the use of those funds give sheriffs leeway in how they spend the money. Generally, RICO money can be used for gang and substance-abuse prevention programs, witness protection and whatever the federal law allows, including training, overtime salaries and equipment for use in drug cases. That includes any operations to target cartel activity in unincorporated Pinal.

"Even if the sheriff is correct that these expenditures were lawful under the RICO statutes, that does not mean such purchases should escape public scrutiny," said Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter.

Keller said people raise their eyebrows over RICO money because it's exempt from the usual appropriations process: Funds are transferred directly to prosecutors' offices and police agencies for their discretionary use without any legislative oversight. The County Attorney's Office administers these funds for all law-enforcement agencies in Pinal.

Jail Enhancement Fund money is generated as court surcharges and administered to sheriffs through the state treasury. Arizona law dictates the funds be used to enhance county jail facilities and operations, but the statute is "written so broadly, you can drive a $400,000 bus through it," Marshall said.

She said the St. Louis event passes legal muster because training is a "legitimate use" of the funds. Still, some wonder if the money could have been used differently.

"Regardless of where that money came from, it's public money," Pinal County Supervisor Pete Rios said. "To spend that kind of money to take that many people to go watch him get an award, I think (Babeu has) got some explaining to do for the voters of Pinal County."