A former bookkeeper at the Westbrook-based Mission Possible Teen Center has been indicted by a grand jury for stealing from the nonprofit organization.
Jess McConkey, 28, of Gray, was indicted this month on two counts of Class C theft, a felony punishable with a maximum of five years in prison, according to Tamara Getchell, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office.
Getchell said the details of the case are not yet public and an arraignment date has not yet been set.
McConkey is accused of stealing between $2,000 and $3,000 from the teen center through the fall and winter of 2007, according to Sandra Hale, president of the board of directors for Mission Possible.
“We discovered he was skimming money from our accounts,” she said.
Located on Main Street, Mission Possible is a drop-in after-school program that provides activities and services, including free meals, field trips and mentoring, to Westbrook teens. Hale said each week, about 80 teens come through the center, which operates on a $200,000 annual budget.
“It didn’t break the bank,” Hale said about the theft, “but if somebody steals from us, we want the money back.”
Hale said McConkey worked as a part-time bookkeeper and on the floor with the teens at the center for about a year.
Maria Dorn, the center’s former executive director who hired McConkey, said he had experience working with kids and his references checked out.
“We thought he was a good fit at the time,” Dorn said about her feeling when she hired him. “He really seemed to enjoy what he was doing.”
McConkey was fired immediately after teen center employees discovered the theft and reported it to police. Hale said McConkey is suspected of stealing for about three months before he was found out.
Hale said she didn’t know the reason for the year-and-a-half lag between the report of the theft and McConkey’s indictment, and the district attorney’s office would not comment on the case.
According to Hale, McConkey had been pleasant to work with and an agreeable employee who was always willing to take on extra duties.
“We trusted Jess,” she said.
He was also popular with the teens and someone they looked up to, which, Hale said, was why the theft was so disappointing.
“He ultimately stole from the kids who come to the teen center and he betrayed our trust,” she said.
After employees from the teen center discovered the missing money, which Hale said McConkey never admitted to taking, they invited him to come back and talk to them, but they never got a call back from him.
“It was a shock,” Hale said. “People were just stunned. It was a huge, huge surprise.”
Since then, said Hale, the teen center has tightened its watch on the books, requiring two people to sign off on all monetary transactions.
Hale said that’s helped prevent a bad mark from being left on the organization in the eyes of its grantors, like United Way and the Department of Health and Human Services, both of which have indicated they’re satisfied with the changes in oversight of money that have been made.
Ultimately, Hale said, she’d like to see McConkey pay the money back to the teen center, but for now, they’re just making sure, she said, “it won’t happen again.”
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