Former Carroll County sheriff deputy pleads guilty to felony charges

CARROLL COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A former Carroll County sheriff deputy has been sentenced to four years of unsupervised probation and a fine after he pleaded guilty to felony charges.

Blake Ringberg, 54, pleaded guilty to theft of property, second-degree forgery and tampering with public records.

Second-degree forgery is a Class C felony in Arkansas and can be punished by three to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Ringberg was fined $13,062.36.

The former deputy was investigated by the Arkansas State Police in August 2022 and found he had collected $11,622 in overtime without the proper documentation. He was arrested in December 2023.

He had collected the overtime in a federally funded grant named the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP). The grant administered by ASP requires law enforcement officers to “conduct traffic stops and write citations for various traffic offenses,” a news release states.

During the ASP investigation in March of 2022, Ringberg resigned from CCSO and is no longer employed as a law enforcement officer in Arkansas.

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