Youth League Embezzler Toupin’s Hearing Withdrawn After $440 Payment: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A woman convicted more than a decade ago for embezzling money from a baseball and softball youth league and failing to make full restitution during that time escaped a court hearing and jail time by making a payment and agreeing to a reinstated restitution plan.

Michelle Toupin of Sherman Drive in Boscawen, the former treasurer of the Merrimack Valley Youth Baseball and Softball League, embezzled more than $15,000 from the organization and was caught in April 2013. She pleaded guilty to a single felony theft count in February 2014. Family members helped her pay back some of the restitution during her sentencing. According to her plea, Toupin was slated to pay back the league and pay fines to the court of about $8,000.

Since then, she has been in varying states of making small payments or defaulting.

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Last month, the court booked a violation of a court hearing due to an unpaid balance of slightly less than $6,000, according to a state corrections department fiscal agent. The hearing was booked for Aug. 15. However, the hearing was withdrawn after Toupin made a $440 payment and agreed to begin paying the previously agreed-upon $100 per month, according to a court filing on Aug. 13.

According to court paperwork, the League submitted a letter to County Attorney Paul Halvorsen requesting action in the matter, saying the real victims, the players, some who were players a decade ago and were now volunteers and coaches, had been denied the benefits and opportunities the stolen funds could have provided.

“(Though her) family members may believe so, our league is not in the wrong for seeking to hold Ms. Toupin accountable,” the letter stated. “By failing to make the promised payments, she is perpetuating her original crime, continuously deceiving the league with promises of restitution that remain unfulfilled. This is about more than just money; it is about a repeated betrayal of trust and a failure to right the wrongs of the past. The criminal act cannot be undone, and it will never change what happened that season, but her assurances of learning, growth, and change do not match her actions over the past ten years.”

The League added, with inflation, the impact of the stolen funds is double the amount initially taken. League volunteers also spent time tracking the payments, reaching out to the court to remind them to enforce the payments, and other distractions that have nothing to do with the children and the league.

“How many broken promises and missed payments are necessary before alternative actions can be taken?,” the letter said. “Please help us ensure that the children who were affected by this theft, and their children, receive the restitution they are rightfully due before it is the children’s grandchildren.”

The league serves boys and girls, 4 to 16, in Penacook, Boscawen, Salisbury, and Webster, as well as softball in Loudon and Babe Ruth baseball in Andover, according to its website.

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