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Jul 30, 2007 11:42 pm US/Central
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Still No Answers In Suburban Little League Scandal
Melrose Park Little League Lost Thousands
by Dave Savini
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The CBS 2 Investigators first exposed the story of a west suburban Little League that was missing tens of thousands of dollars.
Two years have gone by and the money is still unaccounted for. It's a big scandal in Little League. Now, CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini is back on the case looking for answers.
We've uncovered information sparking an Illinois Attorney General investigation into who got away with thousands of dollars the league received in charitable donations, and we've learned the U.S. Attorney has also launched a probe.
The Melrose Park Little Leaguers have big dreams.
"I really would like to make it to the major leagues one day," said Mitchell Eichert.
While they give their best on the field, league officials have been striking out on finding who stole their money.
"I'd like to see some justice for these kids," said Melrose Park Little League Treasurer Sam Scardino.
Scardino says before he took office someone with access to their funds ran off with at least $42,000.
"We couldn't find where any of the cash was documented that was taken in from the kids," Scardino said.
And he says money from team fundraisers also appears to be missing, including bingo night proceeds, upsetting Little League families.
"Wow! That's a lot of money," said parent Irma Herrera. "Where is it?"
Little League officials say a lot of that missing money could have been used to fix up the ballpark – an uneven field causing a dangerous condition for little leaguers.
Two years ago we met Lisa Zito. She handled the league's checkbook as its treasurer during the time in question.
"There was a lot written to her accounts, personal accounts," Scardino said.
Zito said she didn't take the money.
"I don't know nothing about that," she said.
The CBS 2 Investigators went back to her house last week but no one would come to the door.
"All they have to do is give us the documents showing why the money was spent," Scardino said.
Our 2 Investigators learned Zito's league record keeping and spending are now being investigated by the Illinois attorney general's office.
The office is also investigating past little league board president and brother of the mayor Terry Serpico. Zito has pointed the finger at him the past, he maintains his innocence and says he passed a polygraph.
League bank records are being subpoenaed, including thousands of dollars in checks made out for "cash" or written to Zito's personal American Express account.
Eddie Coco, a league board member, says they have tried unsuccessfully to get explanations for these payments and for 19 ATM cash withdrawals from a league account.
"Nobody even knew there was an ATM card," Coco said. "That's the sad part."
Little League checks Zito apparently wrote to her mother and cash for her brother, allegedly for work they did, are being looked into, as well. They, along with, Zito have prior arrest records involving financial crimes. Zito's was in 1993 on two counts of felony forgery.
"It just amazed us that somebody could do this, you know to hurt these kids," Coco said.
The Cook County State's Attorney had the Little League case for years, but just two weeks ago passed it on to the Feds as part of a bigger investigation into other Melrose Park corruption. They wouldn't say why they waited so long. The office dropped the 1993 felony forgery case against Zito.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)