Former head of RACLT charged with embezzlement in Oregon

The former executive director of the Springfield-based Rockingham Area Community Land Trust has been arraigned in an Oregon court and charged with embezzlement of more than $10,000 from his former employer.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110203/NEWS02/702039923

Published February 3, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Former head of Rockingham land trust charged with embezzlement in Oregon

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The former executive director of the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust has been arraigned in an Oregon court and charged with embezzlement of more than $10,000 from his former employer.

Russell Brink pleaded innocent to charges of racketeering, first-degree theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and unlawful use of a computer, according to a spokeswoman from the Eugene, Ore., Police Department.

Brink, who resigned from the Rockingham land trust in late August 2009, had been head of the Springfield-based group for a year after he left Downtown Eugene Inc., the organization he is charged with stealing from.

Melinda McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Eugene Police Department, said Brink was originally held for lack of $185,000 bail, but was later released.

McLaughlin said police started investigating Brink after the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, the parent organization of Downtown Eugene, did an audit of the downtown group’s finances and found numerous problems.

“They discovered that there had been money misappropriated,” she said, and they contacted police in 2009.

McLaughlin said while formal charges cover a short time period, it is alleged that Brink misappropriated the funds during a five-year period. She said Brink is suspected of using $54,283 from Downtown Eugene during a 12-month period from July 1, 2007 until June 30, 2008.

Brink, a native of Hanover, N.H., had left the Downtown Eugene Inc. position in July 2008 and then took the job in Springfield.

Shortly after Brink resigned the Rockingham job, the board conducted an audit of its own finances and found nothing amiss.

Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce President Dave Hauser was quoted in The Register-Guard newspaper as saying that the biggest share of the $55,000 misappropriated fund came from $22,000 in 22 credit card payments made to eight different credit cards. Hauser couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Brink is also charged with making 80 cash withdrawals totalling $10,000 from the Downtown Eugene credit card, the police spokeswoman said.

Hauser was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but he was quoted as saying he was immediately suspicious of Brink after he was in Brink’s office immediately after he left and found torn-up bank statements in the trash.

Brink was arraigned on Jan. 19 after an indictment was filed Jan. 5 by the Lane County district attorney after a grand jury looked into the allegations that Brink misused Downtown Eugene funds.

Brink, 54, a graduate of Hanover High School in Hanover, N.H., was a graduate of Colorado College and was executive director for Downtown Eugene Inc. for 20 years. He helped found the group.

The Rockingham Area Community Land Trust has undertaken several ambitious rehabilitation housing projects, including two large projects in Windsor.

The group is now studying a merger with the Windham Housing Trust of Brattleboro, which was known as the Brattleboro Area Land Trust.