Former Kennewick youth booster gets six months for embezzlement

A Kennewick woman will spend six months in jail for embezzling thousands of dollars from a baseball organization and a school booster club for her personal use.

Sonja Stites-Molnaa, 49, was granted permission by Superior Court Judge Carrie Runge to serve the time on work release.

That means if eligible, Stites-Molnaa will live in the jail and be released from custody for her scheduled work shifts. She must report to the Kennewick facility by Dec. 8.

Stites-Molnaa pleaded guilty in September in Benton County Superior Court to one count of first-degree theft involving Kennewick American Legion Baseball and one count of second-degree theft for the Kennewick High School Booster Club.

Each theft case included the aggravating circumstance that it was a major economic offense and that she used her position of trust to commit the crime.

In the American Legion Baseball matter, she also admitted multiple thefts and that she took money over a lengthy time period.

The six-month term for the American Legion case will be served at the same time as a 90-day jail sentence for the booster club case. Both were at the top of the standard sentencing ranges for the crimes, considering Stites-Molnaa had no prior felony history.

Stites-Molnaa had been the volunteer treasurer for Kennewick American Legion Baseball and Booster Club president when she pocketed the money.

Jeff Groce, the current baseball league treasurer, told the court that Stites-Molnaa is a “very selfish person” who stole from the organization “for her own benefit of gambling and personal enjoyment.”

“It happens all too often that people, specifically parents, are entrusted with the stewardship of a youth organization, but the temptation of benefiting themselves at the expense of children is more important,” Groce wrote in a letter, since he could not attend the recent sentencing.

“(Stites-Molnaa’s) blatant disregard for the benefit of the youth organization and the kids to which the organization was to benefit is deplorable at best,” he added. “Sickening and nauseating are more accurate descriptions of the reaction upon learning of what she did.”

Between September 2011 and April 2014, Stites-Molnaa made unauthorized withdrawals from the organization’s main bank account.

Some of that money went to payments for her Benton PUD utility bill and personal cellphone, along with casinos and retailers in Las Vegas, court documents show.

Stites-Molnaa did not deposit any money into the organization’s separate baseball concession account in 2012, and repeatedly told the board that the balance was $1,000 when it actually was $13.37, documents said.

Groce talked about the approximately $12,000 in outstanding bills he discovered when he first examined the books.

Parents and kids already had solicited donations from local businesses and paid significant registration fees. After learning of the theft, they stepped up to help the board cover the bills, which included scrimping and begging “for deals to make ends meet” and to help regain the trust and confidence of sponsors and creditors, Groce said.

When Stites-Molnaa was with the Kennewick High Booster Club, at least three times in the second half of 2013 she was given cash from concession sales to deposit, but failed to do so.

She repeatedly told club members that two deposits were in her home safe and would be turned over to the treasurer, but she never did that. She later told investigators she is not good with handling her finances.

Stites-Molnaa must pay $23,158 to Kennewick American Legion Baseball in restitution, and $4,187 to the Booster Club.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 8:45 PM with the headline "Former Kennewick youth booster gets six months for embezzlement."