Youth baseball official denies theft
Tewksbury league lost $423,000
CAMBRIDGE -- The former president of the Tewksbury Youth Baseball League has been charged with stealing more than $423,000 from the program over four years, writing hundreds of checks to himself and an employee at his law office and using money to pay for a family trip and hunting equipment, prosecutors said.
Retired Tewksbury police officer Wilfred Daley, 58, is also accused of wiring several thousand dollars in league funds to women at casinos in Las Vegas and Connecticut, said a case summary released yesterday by prosecutors after Daley's arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court.
"We really trusted this guy," said Frank Flanagan, who has known Daley for more than a decade and took over as league president last year, as police investigated the alleged misappropriations. "He was around forever. I don't know what happened."
Wearing an open trench coat and standing near his lawyer, the gray-haired Daley pleaded not guilty yesterday to two counts of larceny over $500.
Superior Court Judge Wendie I. Gershengorn set bail at $5,000, and a court officer handcuffed Daley and took him into custody. Daley's lawyer, Ray Ilg, said that he expected his client -- whose Andover house was foreclosed on recently and who now lives in Seabrook, N.H. -- to post bail last evening.
Ilg declined to comment, except to say that Daley denies the allegations. "We will try this case in the court, not in the press," he said.
Assistant District Attorney John Verner told the judge that prosecutors were "certainly looking for prison time" for Daley if he is convicted.
Daley has been involved in the Tewksbury baseball league since he was a 10-year-old pitcher, Flanagan said. He went on to coach a generation of players and served as league president off and on over the past two decades.
The league, a nonprofit corporation, has about 1,200 players between the ages of 5 and 16 who each pay $65 to $125 a year to participate.
Flanagan, who was vice president of the league under Daley, said he and other directors of the league grew concerned in recent years about the program's finances. When they asked to review the books at league meetings, he explained, Daley always said his wife had them and would arrive at any minute. But she never did.
The matter came to the attention of Town Manager David G. Cressman in late 2005, when a vendor for the league from Billerica threatened to put a lien on town property unless the league paid him thousands of dollars he was owed, Cressman said yesterday.
The town manager contacted police Lieutenant Dennis Peterson, who spoke with an equipment vendor who allegedly was owed $40,000 and a soft drink supplier who allegedly was owed $4,000.
An eight-month investigation by Tewksbury police and the district attorney's Special Investigations Division determined that Daley stole $423,000 from the league from 2002 to early 2006, prosecutors said. Daley wrote more than 100 checks totaling about $137,000 to himself from the league's account, they said.
He also wrote more than 175 checks totaling about $241,000 from the league's account to Karen Pariseau, who told a grand jury and investigators that she sometimes worked for Daley at his law office, according to the case summary. Pariseau could not be reached for comment.
Daley also used a league ATM card to withdraw and spend tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
Tewksbury police faced a significant obstacle in the investigation because Daley's wife, Susan, was treasurer of the league, and both she and her husband have said they kept no financial records, prosecutors said. She has not been charged.
The investigation also found that Daley used the debit card for a variety of personal expenses, including a $1,215 trip for his wife and two children to Las Vegas and the purchase of two Browning rifles, as well as items at the Coach store in Kittery, Maine, prosecutors said.
He also allegedly wired thousands of dollars via Western Union to three different women at casinos and resorts in Nevada, Connecticut, and South Carolina.
Flanagan said Daley did not appear to live extravagantly, but did not hesitate to buy drinks at the local Elks lodge and talked openly about his trip with his wife to Las Vegas.
Flanagan said he was among several league officials whom the town ordered to stay away from league facilities last February as police began investigating the case. He said he immediately called Daley.
"I called him up at the house and said, 'What the heck is going on here?' " Flanagan recalled. "He said, 'I don't know,' and hung up."
Flanagan said he had no idea how Daley could have allegedly stolen $423,000 and that he was unaware that he even had a debit card associated with the league.
Despite the alleged theft, he said, the league has continued to operate, although it had to cut some expenses.
Daley was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1992, but the Board of Bar Overseers suspended his license in June, according to the board's website. Verner said the suspension stems from an unrelated matter.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com. 