Morris and Patterson should both do time as well as have to pay the money back to the town. Also, I hope any of the family members that received money from them illegally, have to go through IRS audits and jail time as well.

Something tells me this is the tip of the iceberg.

this town better not let roy collect his pension. hopefullt town manager will agree

I'm probably not the only one, I'm sure you would be furious if they stole money from your family too especially to fuel a drug addiction.

What about all the cash from the haloween shows and other events that Roy had control of , way more than she took but no way of proving it .

I understand your frustration Mike but we cant have threats being posted on the site. So I did delete that post and the related response. Just tone it down. Thanks.

Furious or not, publically posting what can reasonably interpreted as a threat opens serious liability issues. Surprised the Patch endorsed this post.

They didn't endorse my threat they deleted it, Michael.

will he get his pension which will be quite a chunk of money that would ourage me boy crime pays

Let me get this straight. My son was seriously injured - requiring surgery as a direct result and then months of pain - while under the supervision and care of a drug addict. Somebody was hired by the Town of Tewksbury to run a camp for children who was a drug seeking addict and then at least one of the children in her care ended up in an ambulance. Am I misunderstanding anything here?

That is unbelievable that she worked there. How didn't someone know that something was up with her. Now that I think about it, she did seem like she was on something when I used to go there when I was younger. She always seemed high and was very rude to us all. That's what drugs will do to you I guess never again should some1 in this town work with kids who is a drug addict. Every single person who works with children in Tewksbury should be drug tested from bow on so this town never has another scandal like this again!

Roy was paid close to $90,000 a year and had a take home car. Unreal!

Please do not allow Joe Bill to comment on The Patch

Roy and Lauren should both be totally ashamed of themselves, and like others have said this is just the tip of the iceburg. The sad part of this whole thing is that the town has been disgraced to allow the likes of these two the great jobs they had and neither one of them should be entiteled to a pension. The former town mgr is just as guilty I hate to say, he went along with everything these two were doing, maybe we should check out mr. Cressman I don't believe he is an angel. Too Bad, I am sorry I live in this town and they think Charlestown is bad. Why would anyone like a drug addict be in charge of children? We are lucky that no child was killed under their watch.

I believe what goes around comes around, and people that steal will get theirs in the end. The Patterson's should pack up and leave town and that goes for the Morriss's also don't tell me their whole family didn't benefit from their Robin Hood tactics. Give me a break.

That's what I've been saying all along Carmen, those dirtbags should get a no tresspass in Tewksbury mostly for their own safety if they get reconized from someone they stole from or someone who had their child neglected by them at summer camp, you never know what they might say or do to them.

I don't wish either one of them harm, but I do think they should pack up and leave the town that treated them so well and instead of being thankful they showed what they are truly made of. They will get theirs in the end. But they should be thankful that no child was hurt badly while Roy was busy eating pizza and paying people to work on his son's house, and Lauren was busy making good on her drug addiction, who was watching the children?????????????

Joe Bill, definitely keep the language in check. This last post was fine. In two years I've never banned anyone from posting and I don't want to start now. That said, I'm putting approval requirement on this story too. No comments will be posted without my approval.

I have to say that the hatred and condemnation of these posts is somewhat appalling. Truly, this is in the hands of the courts and the justice system will dole out appropriate punishment. The court of public opinion seems so harsh. As far as Roy, like him or not, think him a thief or not, he DID alot at the Rec Center for alot of children. He spent countless hours there...7 days per week....maybe he's not perfect, I for one am surely not, but "larceny under $250" and some trumped up "conflict of interest" charge (when the town was well aware of the conflict) doesn't seem to warrant the kind of outrageous posts that many of you are writing. As far as Lauren, yes, she broke the law, she will be punished...but condeming her for being an addict is hard to swallow, especially if you have ever had someone you love struggling with a disease...addiction is a disease! Should she have been caring for kids, probably not...but where were the bosses? Roy's bosses? On a final note, with respect to Roy's son being at the Rec Center with a "no trespass" order...hmmm...everytime I was around the Rec, plenty of police officers would come by...why then wasn't he ever asked to leave? I don't get it....any of it....but I for one and not ready to crucify two people without FULL knowledge of what happened and not conjecture and gossip. Like it or not, that Rec center was deplorable before Roy...he did a good job, in my estimation, and provided a much needed service for many parents in town

thank you Bill...

I am not condemning anybody for being a drug addict. I understand it is a disease, and I understand people need help to break the cycle of addiction, but you need to understand where I'm coming from.

The phone call - "We had to call an ambulance. It looks bad." The doctor - "This is a very serious injury. We're calling in an orthopedic surgeon." The surgeon - "His arm will not recover without surgery." I had to take my son home with bones that were quite literally in pieces because the swelling was too bad to set them. I had to hear him gasp in pain every time he moved his arm the tiniest bit. I had to watch him throw up from the combination of the pain and all the drugs he had to take to try to control it. I had to sit for three hours while they put a tube in his throat to breathe for him and hope he woke up. I have to see the scars every day. He has to live with steel plates for the rest of his life. He wasn't with me when this happened. He was at camp, and I couldn't even get a $36 refund for a field trip he had no choice but to miss let alone any expression of regret that he'd been hurt.

I feel for her and her family. I hope she gets the help she needs and gets her life back together, and I wish her no harm. But she had no business being around anybody's child. She was a potential danger to every last one of those kids.

According to today's Lowell Sun the situation is even worse than thought. I cannot tell if it is incompetency or shrewdness on the part of Mr. Patterson. I cannot be sympathetic for him,but at the same time where was the town supervision?

The idea of a non-profit being established seems similar to what happened with the MEC Collaborative mess. My question goes to who was overseeing this entire operation? Do we not have a recreation commission? Don't tell me that Mr. Patterson was on that too.

Somebody higher up than these two needs to be held accountable along with them.

Got to feel bad if your kid was a counselor making 8 to 10 dollars and hour, while he paid his kid who was not even supposed to be anywhere near the rec 20 bucks an hour!! People doing his errands,working at his house, and even his wife got a piece of the action....

I too feel for your situation....your poor son has a lifelong injury now...they should have refunded your money and been more empathetic for sure! Question though, did you ever escalate this to the Town Manager? Shouldn't the town have stepped in and refunded you? I guess, all along, there should have been someone in power to right this ship, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Ultimately, my problem is that the way this has all been reported that Roy has been crucified and it appears that it was more of a witch hunt if in fact his only crime is that of larceny under $250 given what people here are saying...

Best of luck to your son in his recovery!

This whole story is nut's that the town managers allowed this to go on after Tewksbury loosing out on pop warner due to embezzlement. A full investigation should be launched and those family members excepting false or altered payroll payment's should also be charged.this is a sport's proud town do not let future kid's suffer again from the sticky hands of criminals

Drug Test ALL employees

Why did his son have a no tresspass order.

Why no pictures of Lauren ? Roy 's picture is always in the paper ?

why was roy there all the time same reason fred daley drove back every night from his vacation at hampton beach during little league ita all about the money fred would collect snack shack money every night couldnt miss his cut

WOW just read the sun, so is Roy going for an angle of can not be heald accountable due to a missed diagnosis of being special needs.He say ' s $$$ was regularly taken, given, aka borrowed stolen , missing. But seems pretty blase about it.Maybe he was never taught right from wrong.It's not his fault, and that's why his charges seem so small

Poor Roy , just a dumb guy trying to help people...... Ya Rite ! Dumb like a fox , got Lauren to take the fall so they wont take a real good look at him . Ole sticky fingers Roy has ben at it for years, was a crook in the auto body business and what ever happened to that collision apprasale service he had ? Im sure there are a few insurance companys that have issues with him . The sad thing is he got loads of cash that cant be traced so he will get away with it and keep his pention. Makes one real proud to be from Tewksbury where everything is miss managed from sewage projects to Parks and recreation.

I personally dished out over $5000 cash to the rec center for summer camps during Roy and Lauren's reign. NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY THE CREDIT CARD MACHINE WAS ALWAYS BROKEN....shame on them!!! KARMA WILL BITE THEM BACK!!!

Interesting that light was first shed on this issue shortly after Cressman moved on..... coincidence? hmmmm......

it is too bad...i am sure the Haunted house took in tons of $$...my family loved it!! Sad that they think they can 'borrow/steal' $$ that benefited the kids...sad.

The Haunted House took in Thousands, and Roy got all his buddies to volunteer and work for free while he and Lauren took all the money. What about bus trips, etc. etc. I will bet that roy and his wife are set for life and his son is nothing but a chip off the ole block. Birds of a feather flock together. Roy, his wife, his son, and Lauren and all of her family are nothing but a disgrace....................I don't see any good happening to any of them. If Roy gets his pension I am personally going to start a law suit against Mr. Cressman, and Roy Patterson.

Why are we giving town employees "company" cars?

Amen, Mary....I would love for Cressman to be implicated/investigated. I think there's still more to this than meets the (blind) eye that surely was turned.

Does anyone realize that larceny under $250, which is what I believe Patterson was charged with is not a felony? He allowed his son, a probable felon, work under the table taking money from other employees as pay, to work where children were. Roy understand "no trespass orders", he wrote out enough (mostly to children with ADD or ADHD) himself. The last I knew he was making over 70K - he receives 80% of that and we are still paying his benefits. Justice, LOL

The Swede and KM are really missing the rec center thanks bibo and humpty dumptyp