Woman Admits Stealing From Youth Sports Groups

Utica, NY (WIBX) - A local woman has admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from two youth athletic organizations.

Maura Hatton of Rome has pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny. She stole roughly $27,000 from the American Youth Soccer Organization in Oneida, and about $2,700 from the Whitestown Youth Hockey Association, prosecutors said.

Hatton, 39, served as a regional commissioner for AYSO and as registrar for the youth hockey group. She told the court that while the checks were made out to each organization, she would sign her name to the checks and deposit them into her own personal account.

Hatton will be sentenced in mid-February to five years of probation. If she cannot make full restition by then, she'll also be sentenced to six-monhts in the county jail.

Either way, she will have to return all of the money.

Prosectors say Hatton stole the money between November of 2007 and September of 2009.