Put a lien on his house!!!

Doesn't sound like Patterson was really guilty of anything at all/do not have much evidence against him....he is being thrown in with Morris who is ultimately the guilty party....larceny UNDER $250....violation of conflict of interest laws with a NON-PROFIT booster club established to raise money for the recreation department????
I don't know.....maybe someone can clarify the situation for me....railroaded is the only thing coming to my mind....

Talk about brown paper bag money!

I really hope they get what they deserve but everyone already knows the most they will get is a slap on the wrist. Sad part is that this is only the money they "know" they stole and I am sure Roy fattened his pockets and himself with more than they were able to prove.
Oh well, give it a couple months, everyone will forget about it and they'll probably be able to take a nice vacation on retirement funds they'll be collecting from our tax dollars.

For the fed up resident, I find your language to be nasty.

This Really is disgusting and sad that the people we trusted to leave our children with during the summer were total thieves and stole from us and the town. They really should be ashamed of themselves and Karma will get them every time..shame on them! They should pay every dime back to the town and people like us who . spent our hard earned money over the years to send our kids to that camp..which by the way was not very good anyway..the chaperoning was not so great and they really didnt do what they said they would do with the children in the summer..They should be ashamed of themselves and hang there head between their legs..like dogs they are!

I don't understand how the head of the department cannot be liable or responsible for knowing what his subordinate was doing. Where is the oversight?

It's a shame that such a nice place was run by 2 idiots like them. You would think that a rec center would have nice people running it but instead you get two losers who just stole everyones money. Hopefully the place gets open again so kids can enjoy it and normal people will run it. Those two scumbags should get jail time but more than likely nothing will happen to them

Bill Gilman:

The following is part of the terms of use for this website:

Without limitation, you agree that you will not post or transmit to other users anything that contains
Content that:
•is defamatory, abusive, obscene, profane or offensive;

My question to you is - Who is minding the store?
Can you not enforce your own policy?

Also. please reply to me.

Fed up resident's post was right on the money, albeit as nasty as it was.

Morris should be required to do time in prison as well as reimburse the town and lose any future benefits she may be entitled to as a town employee. More importantly, every dept. In this town should be audited annually. Nothing is ever sone until it is too late.

Unfortunatley, even if Mr. Patterson didn't pocket anything, working with such a large amount of cash regularly leads to suspicion. They must have documented proof toward the woman and if they have proof on him, I'm sure it will come out. This is an example why organizations (non-profits, etc.) that accept cash have to have every penny well documented, open books for anyone to see and an entire board aware of each expenditure. It's a shame that this much money, if not more, went out the window this way after how badly the Daley's robbed the town via the baseball program.

18 month investigation....under $250 ? Sounds like Roy might have a lawsuit against the town...

Did Roy ever wonder why he could not afford new stone dust or grass seed for the rat hole ball fields that he was not capable of maintaining?

Maybe the lights will finally turn on for the kids on the courts down there? Oh wait, this is tewksbury. It took long enough for the town to fix the light bulbs, but for what? Kids are much more entertained in this town shooting heroin and sniffing oxycontin then to go down and use the courts as a positive activity. I won't even get into how poorly they are taken care of. From the courts themselves, the hoops, the benches, the trash, ect. It's disgusting.

To "Tewksbury"
Get your facts straight kids are snorting perk 30s not OxyContin and why don't you go get addicted to this serious drug and find out how much of a struggle it really is and how it's a serious disease instead of trashing us kids on Tewksbury patch on an article that has nothing to do with this problem.

Wow, language used by bob99 isn't removed automatically? There's software out there that will identify and delete certain language....if at a minimum Tewksbury Patch can't do that maybe they should reconsider a public comment board !

Also, can we watch the language we use? Sure, this is a passionate issue. However, that doesn't mean we have to use explicit language to get our points across.

Is this the same Roy Patterson that was a gym teacher in the 80's?

Lauren was such a nasty person...I never trusted her and pulled my kids out of there swearing I would never return as long as she was there. I hope she gets jail time

Roy may have turned on Lauren and cooperated in exchange for a lesser charge ?

Hooray Bebo is guilty, the worst person in school sysyem too, never nice, now a thief haaaaaaaaaaaa

Just want to move this along.

He should have to answer for this, from the Lowell Sun today:

Patterson allegedly asked at least three center employees to put extra hours in their paychecks, which he would ask them to cash out, so he could give that extra money to his son for work he supposedly did there, despite the fact that he's not allowed on the center's grounds. His son has had a no-trespass order for the area since 2009.

Patterson initially denied that he was adding extra hours to people's checks to pay his son, but then later admitted to police a couple of months later, according to court documents. He said he had done so, because "it's the only way to do it" because he "they wouldn't let (his son) on the payroll because of his record."

He also admitted to paying his son an hourly rate of $20 per hour, for things like cleaning floors and mowing lawns at the center and associated fields. In contrast, counselors earned between $8 to $11 per hour. He said his son was at the center all the time, despite the no-trespass order.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_21371593/ex-administrators-face-charges-tewksbury-recreation-center-thefts#ixzz24HmkbV2f

thinkin this is out of control, and another story should take it's place...that language is not appropiate Joe Bill.

Just movin on down!

One more time for good placement!!

It is sad that once again the kids take the hit in Tewksbury. It seems no one has learned from the Fred Daily incident. It is the kids who suffer from these acts. You will hear all about the charges but never the out come. What did ever happen to Fred Daily? Was the money ever replaced. Shame on the people we trust with out children who think it is right to take from them and their parents.

OK, because of the actions of a few people, I will now be screening comments on this story. No comments will post until I approve them.

My son broke his arm at the Livingston Camp two summers ago. In the ER, we learned that the break was quite serious and would require surgery. My son was splinted, medicated, and sent home to allow swelling to decrease before surgery. Five days later, he went in for 3 hours of surgery to repair his arm. He came out with two steel plates, one in each bone of the forearm, and approximately 24 screws holding them in place. He will have those plates and screws, along with large surgical scars, in his arm for the rest of his life.

I didn't blame anybody at the camp for what happened; it was an accident. But what happened after was upsetting. Aside from one counselor who called the night of the incident, nobody called to see if my son was okay. Not one person. Not Roy, not Lauren. Nobody. I called the camp the next day to tell them the extent of the injury and to inform them that my son would be missing at least a week of camp and a field trip to Six Flags. I asked for the Six Flags money to be refunded and was told, flatly, "No." No amount of outrage got my cash refunded, either. My son was badly injured in their care and all I got was "Sorry. We already paid for the bus." I'd suspected, but I knew for sure then that something was rotten there. My kids haven't returned since.

Those scumbags should have lost their jobs years ago

I think that Bill Gilman is doing a great job on Tewkbury Patch keeping residents informed of the local news in an unbiased way. He also keeps us informed of any emergency situations residents should be aware of for their own safety and safety of their children. If one or two comments with expletives gets posted, I'm sure he will take it off as soon as possible. Maybe he doesn't have the software that automatically deletes expletives, and he can't be expected to be watching this 24/7. This surely is a hot topic and when it comes to their kids getting the raw end of the deal, parents are going to be mad. Without passing judgment, I'll leave that to the police and courts, but the kids of this town deserve better. Thanks Mr. Gilman for a great job.

Never felt comfortable at that place.

The lowell sun article said that Lauren has been addicted to drugs for 5 years and the patch repeted she was on maternity leave when she was fired - I doubt the town will ever get back the money she stole.

Didnt Lauren work there before 2008? I recall her being there well before that?

Update from today's Lowell Sun:

Concerns ex-director may get off easy in alleged Tewksbury Recreation Center larceny
By Joyce Tsai, jtsai@lowellsun.com
Updated: 09/09/2012 07:12:09 AM EDT

TEWKSBURY -- Even though two former administrators of the Tewksbury Recreation Center will appear in court this month to face charges associated with the misappropriation of the center's funds, some residents say they are worried that the center's ex-director may be getting off easy.
Roy Patterson, the former director, has been charged with one count of larceny under $250 and one count of violating municipal employee's financial conflict-of-interest law over numerous occasions. He stands accused of padding extra hours into the paychecks of at least three employees to pay his son, Stephen Patterson, for work he performed at the center -- despite a no-trespass order that has barred his son from the center's grounds since at least 2009. Police said the order stemmed from a drug arrest in Andover, but had little more detail on its origins.
However, according to Lawrence District Court records, his son was arrested after he was observed purchasing drugs along Route 133 in July 1999. He plea bargained, agreed to enter a drug-rehab program and to be placed on probation for a year. The charges were later dismissed. When contacted by The Sun, Patterson said he and his son didn't want to comment.

cont.-
For his part, Patterson was charged with municipal conflict-of-interest violations as a misdemeanor, rather than a felony -- despite a recent change in law in fall 2010 that would have enabled the district attorney's office to classify it as a felony. That's because the alleged misappropriation of funds took place before the change in law, law-enforcement officials said.
Both Patterson and ex-business manager Lauren Bibo Morris, who is accused of stealing more than $50,000 in 2009 and 2010 from the town's summer-recreation funds, face in arraignments Wednesday in Lowell District Court on charges related to missing funds from the town-run summer programs in 2009 and 2010, even though the center had been in operation 10 years before that. And numerous residents -- and former nonprofit committee members involved with the original establishment of the center -- also say a proper accounting of all the money earned by the center's associated nonprofit, Tewksbury Youth Center, is still sorely lacking.
"For him to be only prosecuted for larceny of under $250, it's a travesty and a miscarriage of justice," Robert McGuire, a former Tewksbury Little League coach, said of Patterson.
The Sun spoke to more than a dozen people involved in youth activities for this story. McGuire was the only one who agreed to be identified. Others asked to remain anonymous, out of fear of reprisal.

cont.-
McGuire and others said questions about Patterson date back to when Wilfred "Fred" Daley was convicted in 2007 for stealing $423,000 from the Tewksbury Youth Baseball League. McGuire alleges that Patterson was also involved with the league's board -- and he believes that Patterson learned how lax accounting and a lack of a paper trail can cover up the full scope of financial abuse and misappropriation of a nonprofit's funds then.
"Everyone knew that he was getting prosecuted for the tip of the iceberg," McGuire said of Daley.
The Livingston Street Haunted House was the nonprofit's main fundraiser for about 10 years, until it was closed in 2010 due to its inability to pay for a new sprinkler system to meet state fire regulations. And for years, it drew the scrutiny of some who felt its finances should be more transparent, a number of town residents said. Similar rumblings surrounded the nonprofit's management of the center's snack bar.
Indeed, the recent investigation by the Middlesex district attorney into the finances at center showed that money was often missing on a regular basis at the Snack Shack. The cash register was off "$40, $50 to $60" per day," by Patterson's own admission, according to court records. It also revealed that Patterson regularly paid for his own lunch and those of others, out of the nonprofit's safe and lent money to others, he said, without recording those transactions.

cont.-
Patterson also admitted to police that he didn't pay taxes for workers at the Snack Shack, even though he employed three to five workers every summer -- and paying them "under the table."

Four former members of the nonprofit committee, then called the Teen Youth Center, said they'd dissolved the nonprofit and resigned early in 1999, within a year of the center's opening, because they didn't agree with the Patterson being chosen to direct the center.

In documents obtained by The Sun, a 1998 letter signed by 12 members of the nonprofit committee wrote to protest Patterson's hiring, because he did not share their vision and he was chosen by the town without their input. Another letter in 1999 had the nonprofit's founders dissolving the organization, because of these differences in the director's and nonprofit's vision for the center. Two of the then-committee members said they were alarmed that Patterson didn't feel the need to pay meals tax or employment taxes at the Snack Shack, or file tax forms with the IRS.
"And just as we stepped away, we saw him become more and more powerful in the position," another committee member said. "And there seemed there was no accounting for where the money went. So I've always wondered where that money (from the Snack Shack and Haunted House) went and what it's been used for."

cont.-
However, law-enforcement officials can only charge Patterson and Bibo based on what's provable through financial accounting records and documentation. And the Middlesex district attorney's investigation unearthed a notable lack of available documentation of the nonprofit's financial records, despite attempts to obtain them.
According to court records, when first contacted by police, a former chairwoman of the nonprofit Friends of the Tewksbury Teen Center, Francis Spinale, at first offered to provide "all records that she had pertaining to the Haunted House."
However, she ultimately provided one sheet of paper, which had the following information on it:
"2007 Deposits -- Haunted House, Trailer, Hayride, Souvenirs, Children's Haunted House

Weekend of 10/5 -10/7: 13,364
Weekend of 10/12 - 10/14: 10,856
Weekend of 10/19 -10/21: 14,214
Weekend of 10/26 -10/28: 10,489
3,098"
When the police detective asked what the "3,098" figure meant, she said she "didn't know."

And when asked if that was all the information she had, Spinale replied that "she had more but she didn't feel it was her place to provide the documentation because she was no longer with the organization," according to the investigation. She formally resigned from the board in January 2010. Spinale didn't respond to repeated calls by the Sun for comment.

cont.-
Other attempts by investigators to question other nonprofit officers also led to similarly disappointing results, with little to hinge the investigation, according to court records.
"It's a disgrace," said one former committee member. "That money belonged to the kids of the Tewksbury -- and their families. And we still don't know where it all went."

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadline ... z25yeo5mqI

.....and a comment:

Mhmjjj

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone needs to step up to the plate and effectively deal with public employee theft. It's a crime. They should do time. They don't deserve their pension and lifetime health benefits. Let's see the "tough, fair prosecutions" prosecutions DA Leone brags about on his website. No more free passes.

She always had a runny nose.

Where is lauren' mug shot I know of someone else who committed a crime and was arrested for a much less serious crime and you plastered his mug shot all over the patch. What happen to inicent until proven guilty on his case, I guess since she was " nice to the kids she " she gets special treatment. She had to be nice to not bring any attention to herself

FYI....there was a photo of each of them in the Lowell Sun the days each of them were arraigned in court.