The former treasurer of Ridgefield Little League is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the organization.
Eric W. Hebner, 43, of Ridgefield appeared Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of five counts of forgery and one count each of first-degree theft and unlawful issuance of bank checks. A judge placed him on supervised release, and he is scheduled to be arraigned March 5, court records show.
In a statement to The Columbian, the league’s board said it has implemented processes to prevent any theft in the future, and “the community of Ridgefield has really come together to have another fantastic Little League Baseball & Softball season with the kids.”
In January, Ridgefield police met with the league’s board members, who said they’d been contacted by vendors about lack of payment. The board said it talked to Hebner about the issue, but he never paid the vendors, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The board went to Umpqua Bank in December, and the bank said the league’s account had been closed in October with a negative balance of almost $3,000. The board said Hebner was the only person with online access to the account from December 2018 to January, court records state.
Board members also forwarded to police emails with Hebner, including one asking for copies of bank statements, to which Hebner replied with five bank statements. Police said Umpqua Bank confirmed the statements Hebner sent were fraudulent, according to the affidavit.
Officers reviewed the account’s statements and found payments to Hebner’s bank accounts, including $34,000 to a Chase account and $11,000 to a Capital One account. They also found $6,000 in checks written to Hebner, $36,000 in cash withdrawals, $12,000 in Venmo payments, $5,000 in payments to Comcast, $2,000 in payments to TikTok and other miscellaneous transactions to companies, such as NW Natural Gas and OnlyFans. The board said all of those transactions were unauthorized, court records state.
Police determined the total amount missing from the league’s bank account was $110,000, according to the affidavit.
