Sports Editor
The two women who were indicted July 2014 for stealing money from the Milford Youth Basketball Association pleaded guilty to a fifth degree felony charge of grand theft on Sept. 16 in the Clermont County Common Pleas Court.
Carey Chesser, of Stonelick Township, and Shannon Wenzel, of Miami Township, could face six to 12 months in prison and/or be fined up to $2,500 under Ohio’s felony classifications. The women will also have to pay upwards of $17,500 in restitution. They will be sentenced on Oct. 29.
“The two members had purchasing authority to buy concession supplies which would later be sold during the games,” said Detective Greg Jenkins who led the investigation. “While making those purchases, they were adding items for their own personal use and paying for those items with the association funds.”
Assigned with purchasing concessions to be sold at the various gyms where the youth association holds games, Chesser and Wenzel allegedly used the organization’s funds to also purchase personal items such as dog food, DVDs, gift cards and person hygiene products.
A complaint was filed with the MTPD after board members questioned why they weren’t making as much money from their concession sales as they believed they should have. Chesser and Wenzel routinely failed to provide the board receipts for their purchases.
Following the end of the investigation, the organization’s board of directors unanimously voted to remove the accused from the board, where they served for up to a decade.
Both Wenzel and Chesser are mothers to children who have played in the organization.
The Milford Youth Basketball Association is a nonprofit that has no official affiliation with the Milford Exempted Village School District, but serves students in the district, grades two through 12, as well as youth athletes who are home schooled or attend parochial schools in Miami Township.
Reports had put the organization’s participants in the range of nearly 1,000 individuals.