Hunter Simmons, 33, arrived at the Graves County Restricted Custody Center on May 21 after being arrested in Bradford, Tennessee and extradited to Kentucky to face a theft charge. Kentucky State Police say Simmons stole $88,688.50 from the Mayfield driver licensing office while serving as administrative section supervisor there—a position that also gave him oversight of the Paducah location.
The theft, investigators say, occurred between April 2024 and January 2026. Simmons allegedly stole payments that customers made for driver licensing services—routine transactions processed at the counter of a state government office. A tip received by KSP on April 13 triggered the investigation. A Graves County grand jury indicted Simmons on May 12 on a charge of theft by unlawful taking, a felony covering amounts greater than $10,000 but less than $1m.
The Gibson County Sheriff's Office located Simmons in Bradford, Tennessee—where he had moved after leaving state employment—and arrested him on May 19. He was transported back to Kentucky two days later.
The case illustrates a vulnerability common to cash-handling government offices: an employee in a supervisory position, with access to payment processing over an extended period, is difficult to catch unless internal audit controls are robust or an external tip arrives. In this instance, the tip came nearly two years into the alleged scheme.
KSP has not closed the inquiry. An investigation of the Paducah driver licensing office, where Simmons also held supervisory responsibilities, remains ongoing. The agency has not said whether additional indictments are expected or whether losses at the Paducah location have been quantified.
For residents who passed through either licensing office over the past two years, the more unsettling question may be how long it would have continued without the tip.