Football Mom Sats Theft Charge Is Revenge By Pop Warner

EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
July 25, 2007

Football mom says theft charge is revenge by Pop Warner
By Jill Harmacinski , Staff Writer

LAWRENCE - Ines Faucher said she's being harassed by the Lawrence Pop Warner Football League for setting up a competing league for children to play in.

But Pop Warner officials said they are just trying to get back the money they said was stolen from a concession stand.

Faucher, 38, of 20 May St., was charged Monday night with stealing $600 from a Pop Warner football concession stand she oversaw last year. She paid back $200 of the $600 but then decided to stop, prompting a police investigation and her arrest, police said.

She pleaded not guilty yesterday in Lawrence District Court to a charge of embezzlement of more than $250 from a voluntary association.

According to the police report, Faucher allegedly took the money in September 2006, when she was concessions manager for Pop Warner. Instead of depositing the $600 in the league's account, Faucher is accused of bringing the money home. She later claimed the money was lost, and she worked out an agreement with league officials to pay it back, according to a police report.

But Faucher stopped paying and league officials sent her a series of e-mails and a certified letter requesting the cash. Then, last December, Faucher quit the Pop Warner league and helped launch the Mill City Junior Maulers, a group associated with the American Youth Football League. She is vice president of the new league, she said.

Faucher claims she's being harassed by Frederick Elwell, president of the Pop Warner league, because she and seven other board members left and started the new league."They are angry, very angry. It's just revenge," she said yesterday, after leaving her court arraignment. She said she volunteered for five years with the Pop Warner league, often putting in late nights. She has a criminal justice degree from Hesser College and attended two years at Massachusetts School of Law. She works as an administrative assistant in Lowell, she said."I didn't embezzle it," she said of the money. "I wouldn't want to destroy my reputation for $600."And, she said, she's not "going to take food out of my kids' mouths" to pay back money she doesn't owe.

Elwell, reached yesterday, had no comment on Faucher's harassment claim. He just wants to get the league's money back."The proof is there," he said. "The money is missing. ... This isn't my money or your money. This is the kids' money."Profits from the concession stand are used to buy equipment for the players, Elwell said.

Elwell told investigators he called Faucher numerous times, trying to get her to pay the money back, but she never returned his call. Elwell also told police he had a conversation with Faucher's husband, Stephen, who said the couple's son took the money and spent it on a tattoo, food and some jewelry for his girlfriend.

"Elwell told me that he has bent over backwards for Faucher to pay back the money, but now he insists that criminal charges be filed," according to a report filed by Detective Paul MacMillan.

Faucher is due in court on Aug. 30 for a pretrial conference.


Pop Warner eating one another again.