A status hearing for ex-Claiborne County Sheriff David Ray has been rescheduled from today to April 15, according to published reports.

In 2017, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation opened investigations into alleged illegal activity on the part of the 72-year-old former sheriff. Ray and two other employees were arrested this past August.

Ray is accused of multiple charges, including seven counts of official misconduct, one count of use of inmates for personal gain, one count of forgery and six counts of attempted tax evasion.

The TBI investigation showed Ray used inmate labor and other county resources to work on his personal equipment and vehicles and to assemble his campaign signs over a thirteen-month period ending in August 2018. It also determined Ray forged and altered the title to at least one vehicle and tried to evade sales tax on several of his personal vehicles, which he sold as far back as 2012.

TBI agents also learned Larry Allen “Fireball” Roberts, an employee of the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office, reportedly “utilized a county vehicle to acquire a controlled substance.”

Another target of the investigation, Larry Lee Martin, a captain in the sheriff’s office and a convicted felon on out-of-state charges, was found to have possessed a handgun on more than one occasion.

Ray, Roberts and Martin were released from Claiborne County Jail on $10,000 bond.