Farmington Ballpark Manager Fired

FARMINGTON — Farmington’s ballpark manager was fired Oct. 26 after city officials were notified by Greenland Police Department that a warrant had been issued for her arrest on a felony theft charge, according to Mayor Ernie Penn.

Misty Wilson, 40, of Fayetteville, was arrested Oct. 26 in connection with theft of property, a Class B felony, for fraudulent use of two bank accounts for the youth sports programs in Greenland.

Wilson was arrested by the sheriff’s office at the Farmington Sports Complex and booked into the Washington County Detention Center. She was released on a $3,500 bond with a Nov. 7 court date.

“When we were made aware of that, that there was a pending warrant and charges against her, we felt it was in the best interest of Farmington to terminate her employment,” Penn said last week. “That’s a violation of our city policy.”

Penn said police Chief Brian Hubbard received a courtesy call from Greenland police about the pending arrest warrant and Hubbard notified city officials.

None of the charges are related to Wilson’s employment in Farmington.

“We’re good. We put in our safeguards a long time ago so we’re good there,” Penn said.

Wilson, who had served as coordinator for the youth ball program in Greenland, began working part-time for Farmington in March 2017. She became Farmington’s parks and recreation facility manager and program coordinator on Aug. 1, 2017.

According to the arrest affidavit, Greenland police officer Hunter Carnahan was approached in October 2017, by two men about discrepancies in two of the Greenland youth sports accounts. The men had taken over the accounts from Wilson.

One of the men, Jeremy Selvey, reported the balance for one of the bank statements did not seem correct and he noticed several expenditures that appeared to be fraudulent in nature. The Summer Ball Account was designated for insurance and ball jerseys and Selvey said he found checks being paid to Wilson, her husband and her children from the account. The notes on the checks were for things that never happened, Selvey told police.

Carnahan reported that he found through his investigation what appeared to be more than $59,000 in fraudulent charges and forged checks from the “Summer Ball Account” in 2012, when Wilson was in control of the account.

The affidavit states that fraudulent charges included checks written from Wilson to Wilson, numerous cash withdrawals, charges from multiple retailers with no relation to the Summer Ball League.

Carnahan found another $24,000 in what appeared to be fraudulent charges in a second account, “Greenland Pee Wee Sports Account,” made from 2015 to October 2017, when Wilson was in control of the account. The charges were from multiple retailers with no relation to the Pee Wee program, numerous cash withdrawals and checks written by Wilson to Wilson.

Penn said the situation surrounding Wilson is unfortunate. He said she “worked hard” for Farmington and did a “very good job.”

Farmington already has posted the ballpark manager’s job on its website. Penn said he may restructure the position to have one person as program director/coordinator and another person working full-time on maintenance at the ballpark. Those are just “thoughts” he is having about it for now, Penn said.

Wilson