Details emerge in youth sports embezzlement

More information was released Tuesday regarding the recent report of embezzlement by two former board members of the North Surry Little League Football and Cheer.

According to the Surry County Sheriff’s Office Cody Lee McMillian, 32, of 173 Old Lowgap Road, Mount Airy, and Jessica Norman Wright, 41, of 540 White Dirt Road, Dobson, were found to be the responsible parties for missing funds from the youth sports group’s bank account.

“On April 24, North Surry Little League and Cheer filed an incident report with the Surry County Sheriff’s Office due to misappropriation of league funds by previous board members,” Tuesday’s release from SCSO stated.

The report filed with the sheriff’s office said that $15,000 of league funds were unaccounted for. It was determined by SCSO that McMillian and Wright were the parties responsible for the missing funds.

Both were charged with a single count of Embezzlement with the potential for additional criminal changes to be filed in the future, the SCSO statement said Tuesday.

SCSO said that Wright was taken into custody on July 19 without incident and was issued a $5,000 secured bond. McMillian was taken into custody two days later, July 21, also without incident; he was received a $25,000 secured bond.

Both will be making their next court appearance on this matter on August 14.

While this may be new information to the public, North Surry Little League and Cheer and the SCSO have been working together on the matter since the audit brought irregulates to light.

In a statement last week from the youth sporting group, they said an internal audit was conducted when new leaders were selected for North Surry Little League Football and Cheer.

President Colton Hoehn said as soon as irregularities were discovered, the group contacted law enforcement for assistance. He said, “We promptly obtained bank records, reviewed them with board members, and notified law enforcement on the same day.”

“I can confirm board members went further than the two years and beyond those two years no discrepancies were located by our board members,” he explained.

“We have now implemented security measures to prevent any similar issues in the future.”