Downey : Man Guilty of Stealing From Little League

A Downey man has pleaded guilty to embezzling $6,600 from the Downey Northwest Little League.

James Albert Williamson, 37, a former Little League treasurer, was sentenced in Downey Municipal Court last week to 30 days in Los Angeles County Jail, 1,500 hours of community service, and three years of probation by Judge Leon Emerson, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jack Stuart. In addition, the judge ordered Williamson to pay back the money to the league.

League officials discovered the money was missing last September and confronted the treasurer. Williamson then wrote league officials a postdated check for $6,600, but asked that the check be held for two months so he could deposit enough money to cover it, Stuart said.

But when league officials attempted to cash the check two months later, it bounced, and they turned the matter over to the city police. Williamson was arrested in December on a felony charge of embezzlement, which is punishable by at least a year in the state prison.

However, during a preliminary hearing in Downey Municipal Court, Williamson agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of embezzlement, which is punishable by no more than a year in the Los Angeles County Jail.