KNOX COUNTY, Neb.- Three Knox County employees are without jobs following an internal investigation.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday morning, the board suspended County Attorney Hanna Knox Jensen without pay for a year, fired Chief Deputy Sheriff Dan Henery, and fired 911 Coordinator Heather Kienow.

The actions come following an investigation by Special Knox County Attorney David Begley and Special Deputy County Attorney Eric Hagen. The investigation dates back to 2024 when a new security system was added to the courthouse.

Jensen was in charge of the committee for the upgrade. The upgrade included adding a second microphone to the boardroom. The report from the special county attorneys says the microphone was hidden and that board members didn’t know it existed. Before the security changes, the board used a “kill switch” to turn off the old microphone. The switch did not control the new microphone.

The board used the room for closed sessions, which are meant to be private. County staff also used it for meetings with employees about personal matters.

The report says the board started looking into the matter in January after some courthouse employees found out about a staff member’s personal health issue that had only been discussed in the boardroom. Board members then found the new microphone and contacted Allied Connective, which had installed the new system. According to the report, the company said a woman from the courthouse told them to not install a kill switch for the new mic.

The special county attorneys interviewed each of the employees and deputy county attorney John Thomas. They each denied knowing that the kill switch didn’t work or said they never listened to private audio. In the report, the special county attorneys said they believed the employees were dishonest and that their answers were not credible. The special attorneys recommended disciplining the employees and forwarded the report to the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Counsel for Discipline to allow the counsel to review Knox Jensen and Thomas’s law licenses.

Board Chairman James Sokol Jr. told NCN he believes all three employees knew about the microphone and did not reveal the information, directly violating the employee handbook. According to a news release, the board believes that Knox Jensen, Henery and Kienow didn’t use boardroom audio for personal or improper gain.

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office started investigating the situation in March and determined in June that it would not file any criminal charges.

When reached over the phone, the county attorney’s office read a statement calling it a “secret” investigation and said it wouldn’t comment until further evidence was presented.

The board ordered Sheriff Don Henery to fire his brother Deputy Henery and Kienow. The sheriff refused, so the board fired them on its own.

At the board meeting on Wednesday the board also cut Thomas’s job, though the firing was from budget cuts not related to the investigation.