Ex-President Accused of Embezzling From Ellington Youth Football

ELLINGTON, CT — The former president of the Ellington Roadrunners Youth Football and Cheer program was recently arrested after police said he embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from the program over several years.

David Race, 53, of Manchester, was charged July 15 with first-degree larceny and held on $100,000 cash or surety bond. He was arraigned in Rockville Superior Court on July 20, when his bond was reduced to $25,000 and he was released. He is slated to appear again in court Sept. 18.

Connecticut State Police said Race embezzled more than $60,000, adding the actual amount could be higher.

Police launched an investigation of Race in April 2019 after a member of the Roadrunners' executive board became suspicious when helmet reconditioning, a mandatory process done every two years, did not appear to have been completed, despite Race's insistence that it had, according to a 16-page affidavit.

A coach involved with the program emailed the executive board asking for a receipt or bank statements to prove the reconditioning work had been performed. The requested information was not provided, and Race and the coach got into a heated argument over the issue at a Feb. 2019 board meeting, according to the affidavit.

Race was not present at a board meeting in April 2019, when the treasurer provided bank statements for 2018 and the first two months of 2019, with the exception of Dec. 2018. Board members compared the statements to financial reports Race had been providing, and Race's documents "did not mirror the bank statements, which they should have," according to the affidavit.

No charges for the helmet reconditioning were listed in either June or July, when Race claimed the work had been done, according to the affidavit. In 2016, the work had been done for $3,500 and there were "no charges anywhere near that in 2018." Additionally, no deposits were shown from an online program registration website, handled through a third party, according to the affidavit.

A past treasurer of the organization told police she was constantly given excuses by Race as to why her name was never added to the Roadrunners' bank accounts. She also expressed concern about cash collected by Race from the sale of raffle tickets and concessions, which she saw him put into his backpack.

"I found this odd because I did not see Dave Keep any record of how much money he collected or who gave it to him," she told police.

She resigned from the program in Sept. 2018, "because I was scared of the terrible record keeping and all of the rumors I heard about Dave and money missing from the league," according to the affidavit.

Police said money from two third-party vendors, which was supposed to be directly deposited into the program's treasury, was instead deposited into Race's personal accounts. The amount was $60,565.77, but Trooper Patrick O'Brien wrote the actual amount embezzled could be higher.

"It is possible that there is more money missing from the league's bank accounts other than the transactions that were directly deposited into Race's bank accounts," O'Brien wrote in the affidavit.

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