Former exec says he can account for missing funds

Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 1:29 a.m.

Following a five-month investigation, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police recommended to the Clark County District Attorney's office that David McCurdy be charged with two counts of theft and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses.

McCurdy, who was president of Peccole Little League from 1993 until 1996, has denied any wrongdoing and blames disgruntled members of the league board of directors.

"When we meet with the district attorney and go over what we have ... there is going to be no basis" for criminal charges, McCurdy said.

Police said the case centers on a $50,000 insurance check and $73,200 donated by the Fletcher Jones Chevrolet dealership.

The Las Vegas police investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by league board member Sam Jacobellis, a former Los Angeles Police Department detective. Jacobellis and fellow board member Phil Musso spent three months investigating league finances during McCurdy's stint as president, and said they found unaccounted for at least $120,000.

According to police, missing funds include $50,000 obtained from an insurance company for field equipment McCurdy reported stolen from a storage shed.

But the insurance claim included at least one item that was not stolen, detective Kim Johnson said. A $7,245 all-terrain vehicle that matched the serial number of a vehicle McCurdy said was taken was recovered at Durango High School in October, she said.

Also missing, according to Johnson, is a $73,200 donation from the Fletcher Jones dealership to buy five electronic scoreboards. Only one scoreboard valued at $23,500 was purchased, and Johnson said McCurdy used money from a separate account, not the Fletcher Jones donation, to buy it.

Both the insurance check and the Fletcher Jones check were made out to Peccole Little League.

McCurdy's conduct has irked not only league members but many city officials, who are still smarting over their 1994 decision to do business with him.

Using a $1.7 million donation from Bill Peccole - the developer of the Peccole Ranch master planned community - McCurdy and business partner Brad Peterson were to have built one full-size diamond and four smaller baseball fields at Rainbow Park by Dec. 31, 1995.

In exchange, McCurdy and Peterson were to have exclusive rights to run a concession stand at the fields, subject to the approval of the federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land.

But the BLM rejected the concession plan, and McCurdy did not complete work on the fields, according to city Parks Director Dave Kuiper.

Kuiper estimated about $450,000 worth of work was done; McCurdy claims the entire $1.7 million donation, minus his salary of "probably less than" $170,000 for about one year of work, was used for the fields.

Kuiper said the city had to spend about $2 million getting the fields ready - work that, with the exception of extra parking space, should have been done by McCurdy, he said.