A Wood County circuit judge is deciding whether to accept a plea deal for two women charged with embezzling money from the Girl Scouts.
In fact, Judge John Beane, has spent several months deliberating whether to accept the diversion agreement which would allow Denise Davis and Mary Farnsworth, both of Parkersburg, to pay back about $2,400 and, if they stay out of trouble, have charges against them dismissed and not appear on their records.
The prosecutor in the case agreed to the deal. But the judge began questioning the settlement earlier this year after hearing testimony from a former Girl Scouts employee, who says she went to police about missing money four years ago.
Mari Jo Tedesco alleges the money taken by Farnsworth and Davis is a lot more than what they were charged. She is upset with the deal prosecutors have offered the women.
Tedesco also claims that the alleged scheme stretches beyond the women charged and that members of the upper management with the Girl Scouts of the Black Diamond Council inflated numbers to receive more grant money.
Tedesco, who worked for five years for the Black Diamond Council, says she went to police after her supervisors refused to acknowledge her claims over missing money.
Roane County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Downey, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case, said last week, after another hearing in the case, that embezzlement cases can be hard to prove.
"This went back a lot of years and the numbers we indicted them for was the numbers we felt we could prove. We have receipts for those numbers," Downey said.
Davis and Farnsworth allegedly used about $2,400 that Girl Scouts raised in the Wood County area from cookie and yard sales.
Farnsworth and Davis took their daughters and one of their friends to Sea World in 2011 with the money, according to Downey. The money spent came from six different outreach troops around Parkersburg, Downey said. Outreach troops serve girls, who have low parent participation.
The case was made more difficult, Downey said, because officials with the Girl Scouts didn't want to press charges.
"They have continuously stated they don't feel that they are the victims of a crime," Downey said.
On Friday, Erica Strother, a spokeswoman for the Black Diamond Council, said in a statement that after the allegations came to light an investigation was launched that turned up nothing.
"The Council conducted a thorough investigation, including an independent audit firm review of all of the available records in our possession. Based upon the review of those records, the audit firm found no proof of criminal wrong-doing or unethical behavior," Strother said in an emailed statement.
Davis still works for the Girl Scouts, Downey said.
Tedesco said she told the judge in February that, among other things, actually close to $15,000 in cookie profits were missing and that Davis and Farnsworth wrote and cashed dozens of checks for personal use.
"Not once has anyone expressed concern for the girls that were used for the profit of those that were supposed to protect and nurture them," Tedesco said in court in February, according to a letter she read. "Girl Scouts are supposed to empower girls and make responsible, honest and productive adults of the girls involved. What are we teaching the girls and society as a whole if people in positions of authority are allowed to abuse their privileges over the span of years and endure no consequences for it? That it is OK in the eyes of the law. It all seems very hypocritical."
Tedesco says she was fired in 2014 after refusing to write a story explaining how the organization had used money given to it from the United Way.
Downey was appointed to the case because Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Wharton sits on the United Way's board of directors.
"They said, 'Can you go ahead and give us a story?' And I said no, I've asked for two years for you to tell me where the money is going. It's not going to the girls, so I'm refusing to write it," Tedesco said.
The judge will make a decision about the deal for Davis and Farnsworth on June 6.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.