NATCHEZ — County Court officials are still in the process of figuring out how much money may be missing after accusations of embezzlement were made public Wednesday.

The former administrator for the Adams County Juvenile Justice Center, Kevin Nations, was booked into the county jail on a charge of embezzlement Wednesday afternoon.

Nations resigned his position with the youth court facility — which is overseen by the county court — approximately three weeks ago.

The alleged embezzlement was apparently discovered by separate investigations by the county court office and the county administrator’s office when funds meant to be remitted to the county never showed up in county ledgers.

County Administrator Joe Murray said Thursday he could not comment on the matter because it is under investigation by the district attorney’s office.

The funds in question were reportedly payments other counties made for the housing of out-of-county offenders in the juvenile justice facility. County Court Judge John Hudson said his office was in the process of accumulating information from other counties.

“We have asked those counties for copies of all the cancelled checks going back to October of last year,” Hudson said. “So far, we have that for one county of 10, and there is no way to tell (how much is missing) until we get them all in.”

October was chosen because it is the beginning of the fiscal year, Hudson said.

The judge said his office has also instituted new controls to ensure the same situation doesn’t happen again.

Previously, the payments were received by the juvenile justice facility but were not handled there. The checks were instead taken to the county bookkeeping office to be deposited.

That process had been in place for years, Hudson said, and the juvenile detention center had no dedicated account in which to place the checks.

“The people were supposed to be taking the checks to bookkeeping, and (the checks) were getting intercepted and negotiated,” Hudson said. “I am still perplexed about how they got negotiated.”

Now, the payments will be directed to the county court’s financial officer, who will credit the accounts of the other counties before directing the check to county bookkeeping.

“It’s two layers, and we will know what the balances are before we take them to bookkeeping,” Hudson said. “Even our people won’t have any authority to place it in the account.”

Nations was released Wednesday evening on a $50,000 bond.