SAUGUS — Considering the Boston Center for Adult Education’s mission to provide accessible educational opportunities for the city’s residents, Saugus selectman Mark Mitchell’s arrest for embezzling funds from the organization earlier this year certainly wasn’t a good look for anyone.
An article the Daily Item published on April 17 reported that a complaint filed in Suffolk Civil Court claimed the BCAE’s Board of Directors previously discovered “serious misappropriations of funds from its bank account,” which had been solely controlled by Mitchell and his co-defendant, Executive Director Susan Brown. Brown hired Mitchell as a controller of the nonprofit in 2011.
The charges alleged Mitchell stole more than $515,000 from the organization by writing several unauthorized checks to himself to cover expenses for the Saugus Wings baseball team, of which he is still a manager, over a period of time spanning July 11, 2016 through Sept. 7, 2018.
Mitchell, who was 49 at the time he was charged, was accused of conversion, civil conspiracy, and fraud after allegedly admitting to accounting firm Marcum LLP that he had been misappropriating funds from the center since 2014. He would later deny the allegations and plead not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court.
Mitchell’s answer to the complaint stated the BCAE was acting “in bad faith and with unclean hands.” The Item reported in a July 24 article that he had also “requested the complaint be dismissed and he be awarded his reasonable costs and attorney fees,” and that he’d also requested a trial by jury.
In the same July 24 story, the Item quoted a statement made by District Attorney Rachael Rollins about the case.
“I am committed to holding individuals accountable who abuse their power and betray the public’s trust,” she said. “Their selfish and criminal actions depleted resources that were intended for the improvement of our communities, but more critically depleted the public’s confidence in our institutions.”
