FORT WORTH, Texas — The former president of a North Texas youth league was sentenced to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $40,000 from the organization over several years, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Eric Scott Fletcher used the debit card of the Decatur Baseball League when he was the organization’s president to buy items like two tickets to a George Strait concert in Las Vegas that cost $1,307.56, items including lingerie from Victoria’s Secret for more than $200, jewelry for more than $400 and rooms at a hotel in Corpus Christi for $574, the Wise County Messenger reported. He also spent $1,393 at restaurants and paid $975.67 to Farmers Insurance for personal car insurance, according to the newspaper
Fletcher pleaded guilty last week in the 271st District Court in Decatur to theft of property between $30,000 and $150,000, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Prosecutors said that from August 2016 to April 2019, Fletcher took at least $40,000 from the youth league, according to the Messenger. About half that amount was taken through ATM withdrawals, the newspaper reported.
The Messenger reported that as part of the plea agreement, Fletcher was sentenced to probation with deferred adjudication and required to pay the baseball league $28,000 in restitution.
The thefts were discovered in 2019 when league officials in Decatur found discrepancies in their banking transaction history, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“I think it was a crime of opportunity. He was the sole person who had access to it and just did it, and that’s unfortunate,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told the newspaper. “When you steal from little kids, that’s not OK.”