AUGUSTA — A former Winslow woman has been ordered to serve 18 months in prison for embezzling more than $10,000 from the Winslow Wrestling Boosters Club and $300 from the China Girls’ Field Hockey Team, and for stealing more than $60,000 in public assistance benefits.

Wendi Pond, 42, formerly known as Wendi Willette and Wendi Thompson, now of Whitefield, New Hampshire, was sentenced Thursday at a hearing in the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta.

Justice Michaela Murphy imposed a four-year prison term, ordering Pond to serve 18 months and suspending the rest. The jail time will be followed by four years of probation.

“I am truly ashamed of what I have done,” Pond said, telling the judge it was a result of abuse she suffered from her ex-husband. “At the time, my head was not there.”

Both she and her attorney, Randy Robinson, asked for a delay in beginning the jail sentence.

“I am willing to take my full responsibility and punishment for what I deserve,” Pond said, adding, “I would like to do my health first.”

Robinson said his client has medical ailments and anticipates having to have portions of her stomach removed.

“Certainly she is not a prime candidate to endure prison right now,” he said.

He said she has shown up for all the hearings in this case “in spite of being destitute and living in New Hampshire.”

Murphy denied the request for a delay, saying the prison system has facilities to handle Pond’s needs and that medical documentation requested by the court hadn’t been provided.

Pond was ordered to pay restitution of $41,981.41 to the Department of Health and Human Services, $18,466 to the Social Security Administration and $840 to the Maine State Housing Authority.

Restitution remaining for the Winslow Wrestling Boosters is $3,125, according to District Attorney Maeghan Maloney. Pond already has paid $5,300 in restitution.

Assistant Attorney General Darcy Mitchell told the judge Pond’s sentence was comparable to that imposed in similar cases.

Robinson, Pond’s attorney, told the judge, “It’s a lot better than the 10 years it could have been.”

The most serious charges carried maximum prison terms of 10 years. He said he would have preferred Pond receive a lesser period of incarceration.

“Despite the fact that she screwed up, these aren’t violent crimes,” Robinson said.

Pond stole more than $10,000 from the Winslow Wrestling Booster Club between Sept. 1, 2010, and July 31, 2013, and $300 from the China Girls Field Hockey Team from Sept. 1 to 17, 2013.

She also received food stamps, MaineCare and another assistance program between Dec. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2013. In her applications, she indicated she and her two sons were the only occupants of her China Road home and she had no income other than Social Security disability payments.

Her indictment said Willette intentionally failed to disclose that her husband was living at the home and contributing financially to the household. At the sentencing hearing, Mitchell said some of the fraud was uncovered after Willette Thompson’s then-husband, Paul Willette, learned that she was receiving state benefits.

Mitchell previously said Pond’s ex-husband told officials in September 2013 that he had been living with the family in the China Road home, that he was steadily employed as a truck driver for a food distribution firm, that he never made less than $55,000 a year and that the money went into a joint account.

Mitchell said records show that in June 2007 the couple bought property on China Road, built a $70,000 mobile home and two years later obtained a town permit to install a deck and a pool.

At the same time, Mitchell said, Willette regularly filled out applications for state aid, saying she and her two children lived alone, received no support from her husband and had a zero balance in her bank account.

Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:

badams@centralmaine.com Twitter: @betadams

Copy the Story Link