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SKOWHEGAN — The former secretary of the Skowhegan Fraternal Order of Eagles has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from the club, following a lengthy investigation.

A Somerset County grand jury earlier this month indicted Heather D. Kennedy, 45, of Madison, for one Class B count of theft, court records show.

The indictment alleges Kennedy took more than $10,000 cash from the club at 164 Water St. Kennedy was the club’s secretary when the alleged thefts are believed to have occurred, according to an affidavit from Detective Michael Bachelder of the Skowhegan Police Department filed in support Kennedy’s arrest.

Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said police believe Kennedy took about $103,000. The value of “more than $10,000” listed in the indictment is the definition in Maine law for a Class B theft charge, which is the highest class for theft.

An indictment is not a determination of guilt but indicates enough evidence exists for a case to move forward to trial. As of Wednesday, Kennedy had not yet entered a plea, according to court records.

She is due in court in Skowhegan on June 9 for an arraignment and dispositional conference, court records show.

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Kennedy’s court-appointed attorney, Carol Webb, did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Before the case went to the grand jury, police arrested Kennedy on a warrant for the charge in March. She posted $750 cash bail and was released from the Somerset County Jail, court and jail records show.

According to the affidavit, the police investigation into Kennedy began in February 2024 when Brian Hjort, then the club’s secretary, and Steve Robbins, a former president at the time, contacted the Skowhegan Police Department.

Hjort and Robbins, each reached via telephone Wednesday, declined to comment publicly on the case.

Hjort had previously been secretary of the club and had recently taken over the position again from Kennedy when he went to police, Bachelder wrote in the affidavit. He “started noticing issues while going through the (club’s) books.”

Many of those issues, according to the investigation described in the affidavit, had to do with sealed ticket games that the club runs.

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Maine gambling rules define such games, commonly known as Lucky Seven, as “a game consisting of tickets or cards with preprinted symbols, numbers or other figures that are hidden by an opaque removable material. Each ticket or card represents a chance to win a specific single prize or specific single set of prizes. A winning ticket or card contains a predetermined winning configuration of symbols, numbers or other figures.”

Hjort gave Bachelder papers that indicated the state Gambling Control Unit did not renew the club’s license to run sealed ticket games because Kennedy was late in submitting reports from May to December 2023. An inspection in January 2024 found the club continued to operate the games without its license, the affidavit says.

Hjort also gave Bachelder bank statements that showed various transactions he highlighted, the affidavit says.

And he showed the detective a message he received from Kennedy’s mother asking to “keep ‘this’ between the two of them and to give (Kennedy) the chance to ‘pay whatever it is back to the club’ before contacting police or the District Attorney’s Office.”

A month later, Bachelder attempted to interview Kennedy, the affidavit says. She told Bachelder “she had an idea of why he was there” and that she was the club’s secretary but declined to answer further questions without an attorney present, the affidavit says.

In a later meeting with Bachelder, Hjort told him Kennedy had gone on vacation at one point and told her colleague not to allow him to look at the computer with the club’s accounting software; that Kennedy started using a petty cash system to replenish the sealed tickets games; and that Kennedy insisted on making bank deposits from sealed ticket games instead of the club’s treasurer.

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The affidavit also references several witness statements from Eagles club employees.

One wrote she saw Kennedy take money out of a deposit bag to play sealed tickets games. Another wrote Kennedy often drank and gambled while at work and on two occasions asked her to take a small amount of cash out of the bar register and out of petty cash.

A third wrote she saw Kennedy take money out of deposit bags several times and make ATM withdrawals at the club while playing sealed ticket games.

Bachelder wrote in the affidavit he ultimately found dozens of records of suspicious transactions made by Kennedy: 56 checks totaling $69,935, 22 withdrawals totaling $29,989, 16 ATM withdrawals totaling $3,355 and six debits totaling $422, all between March 2022 and February 2024. Bank statements also showed thousands of dollars in Amazon purchases using the Fraternal Order of Eagles’ debit card that did not appear in the club’s Amazon account, the affidavit says.

Though the affidavit does not state it explicitly, the figures listed for checks, withdrawals and debits add up to the total $103,701 figure that Bucknam said police believe was taken.

Bachelder wrote he “checked the games to determine the games’ ending balance on the nearest date prior to each check being written and each withdrawal being made.

“The withdrawals made were in excess of any losses; often double or quadruple the amount of the games’ loss,” he continued. “The majority of the checks/withdrawals were made when a game ended in the positive.”

Jake covers public safety, courts and immigration in central Maine. He started reporting at the Morning Sentinel in November 2023 and previously covered all kinds of news in Skowhegan and across Somerset...