Crime

Authorities said the defendant embezzled nearly $1.3 million from Boston Center for Adult Education, which has been temporarily closed since 2019.

A former Saugus selectman pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $1.3 million from an organization that provides classes for adults, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Mark D. Mitchell, 53, entered his guilty plea in Suffolk Superior Court to all 18 charges against him, including five counts of larceny by scheme, six counts of improper campaign expenditures, three counts of forgery, three counts of false entries in corporate books, and one count of publishing false or exaggerated statements.

He now faces 18 months of jail time followed by three years of probation, sentenced by Judge Michael Doolin on Thursday.

The case centers around an embezzlement scheme that dates from 2011 to 2018, when Mitchell was the comptroller of the Boston Center for Adult Education. 

The total amount embezzled from the adult program center was $1,295,338, according to court documents. Authorities said that included $896,537 in checks Mitchell wrote to himself and $82,510 in checks made out to the Saugus Wings, a baseball team that Mitchell owned. The defendant also made $242,749 in checks to “unauthorized third-party organizations for his personal benefit and the benefit of his AAU teams” and $73,540 in checks to a BCAE instructor whose signature he forged before putting the money in his account.

Authorities said Mitchell was assisted in the scheme with the help of Susan Brown, 70, and Karen Kalfian, 66, of Marblehead. Brown, who was the BCAE executive director at the time, is accused of authorizing $565,000 in checks to marketing employee Kalfian for marketing services, knowing that Kalfian had not actually provided any marketing services, according to court documents.

Brown also allegedly helped cover up their tracks when it came to presenting financial information to the BCAE board by falsifying reports. 

Both Brown and Kalfian are scheduled for trial on Oct. 10. 

During Mitchell’s time as a Saugus selectman from 2015 to 2019, authorities said he mismanaged more than $16,000 in campaign funds and underreported donations he raised by over $15,000.

BCAE, founded in 1933, announced in 2019 that it would no longer offer its adult education classes. In the email, the center said it had been losing money over the past few years because of declining enrollments and increased cancellations. 

The center has remained temporarily closed, with BCAE stating it was “undergoing a strategic planning process.” There has been no word on when — or if — the center will reopen.

“The scope of this scheme is made more contemptible when one considers the organization it victimized — an organization that has provided educational benefits to tens of thousands of adults since it was founded nearly a century ago,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “This calculated theft struck at the heart of the BCAE’s ability to do what it does so well and has done for so long. Mitchell’s plea is only the beginning of the reparations that are justified in this shameful breach of fiduciary and civic trust.”

Doolin also ordered that Mitchell pay restitution, an amount that will be decided during a Nov. 9 hearing.