Youth Soccer Group Takes $30,000 Beating

An Escondido-based youth soccer association is reeling after its treasurer was arrested on suspicion of embezzling $30,000--and perhaps more--from the organization and leaving it virtually broke on the eve of league championships.

Escondido Police Lt. John Wilson said investigators have traced about $30,000 in soccer funds to the personal bank accounts of Paula Archie, who has been the soccer association’s volunteer treasurer for two years.

But Wilson said Monday that another $15,000 or more may be missing from the association’s treasury, bringing to $45,000 or more the amount of money that may have been embezzled.

“All together, there should have been about $50,000 (in the soccer association’s bank accounts), and we can only account for about $5,000,” said Wilson.

Archie, who lives in Escondido and runs an accounting and tax preparation business, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of embezzlement, grand theft and forgery, Wilson said.

The incident is the second in two years in which North County adult volunteers with youth sports have been accused of embezzling funds. In 1987, Joe McDowell, then president of the Fallbrook Youth Soccer Program, pleaded guilty to embezzling $13,000 in candy fund-raising proceeds in exchange for prosecutors’ dropping a second count that he embezzled another $8,000. McDowell was sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $21,000 restitution to the soccer league.

Among the accusations against Archie are that she bypassed the Escondido organization’s normal system of checks and balances requiring two signatures on checks by forging another director’s name on checks that were then deposited in her own, personal account, Wilson said.

“There are many avenues of manipulation in this case,” Wilson said. “Some money was deposited in her account; some money was put in the right (league) account, but then checks were written and transferred to her personal account.”

Although declining to discuss the allegations in greater detail, Wilson noted that it is not uncommon in youth sports for large amounts of cash from snack bar proceeds to be turned over to an organization’s treasurer for deposit, and that it can easily be diverted to other accounts.

Financial inconsistencies can be traced back to last January, Wilson said, although board members said the most serious accounting problems date back over the past 60 to 90 days.

Archie, who could not be reached for comment Monday, was booked into the County Jail at Las Colinas and then released on $34,000 bail.

Archie is described by those who know her as a friendly, outgoing person who was herself active in fund-raising activities. Her son is a soccer player.

Wilson said the case is expected to be delivered to the district attorney’s office in Vista by the end of the week for prosecution.

Police were asked to investigate after board members got word that a check to a referee had bounced.

“Our first feeling was that it couldn’t have, because there was supposed to be thousands of dollars in the bank,” said John Snow, president of the soccer association’s volunteer board of directors. “We contacted our bank and found out there were no more funds.”

Several board members huddled over the bank statements after the Nov. 3 notification of the bounced check, and several days later asked police to investigate. Archie turned over the books but has been otherwise uncooperative in discussing the problem with board members, one director said.

“It’s something you just can’t believe,” said Jack Houghtaling, a parent volunteer with the organization. “Everybody is volunteering for the kids, and you just can’t believe that someone would go in there and take money away from them. It’s like stealing candy from a baby.”

The association provides soccer for 1,800 youngsters, primarily from Escondido but also from the neighboring communities of San Marcos, Ramona and Valley Center. The regular season has ended, and the final series of championship playoff games is set for Saturday at Escondido’s Kit Carson Park.

“The board of directors is committed to holding the championships so that the kids won’t even notice a thing is wrong,” said Snow. “We’ll make sure they don’t suffer anything because of this.”

The organization’s $50,000 represented registration fees, business sponsorship donations, snack bar proceeds, fund-raisers and reserve funds from the previous year. The money is used to buy uniforms, pay referees, purchase trophies and send championship teams out of town for playoffs.

News of the alleged embezzlement spread quickly Saturday as playoff teams competed on the field and parents huddled on the sidelines, but a consensus emerged that the organization would weather the problem, parents say.

“This is a pretty cheeky thing for someone to do to our kids,” said said Pam Farmer who, with her husband, Dave, are long-time youth soccer volunteers. “But this is a dynamite organization, and I have no doubt that we’ll get outside assistance, and we’ll bounce back. The kids will get their trophies, whether it’s on the league’s dime or not. This is sad. It’s distressing and it’s disappointing, and I can imagine how devastated (the board of directors) must be.”

Board member Terry Jones, who has been named acting treasurer, said the organization is still trying to reconstruct the financial books and has retained an accounting firm for help. “And they’re going to set up a new system for us because it’s apparent that our present system is not adequate,” he said, referring to the accounting system.

The association does not require that the treasurer be bonded and conducts its own year-end internal audit of the books.

“She had control of the books,” Jones said. “This whole league is built on trust, and you wouldn’t expect anyone to do something like this.”