Trial of Former Football Coach Begins

Coach James Atkins is pictured at left in a photo taken last summer.

Former Medford, Chelsea Football Coach Accused of Stealing Team Cash

– Allison Goldsberry

James Atkins, a decorated police sergeant credited with revitalizing the Chelsea high school football program and once hired to do the same for Medford is now on trial for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars in Chelsea team cash.

“The defendant [Atkins] did a great deal for Chelsea High School. There’s no disputing that the defendant revitalized the football program at Chelsea High School. But more than that, the defendant was entrusted with vast amounts of cash and he violated that trust,” said Assistant District Attorney Edward Beagan in his opening statements to jurors on Monday.

Atkins is charged with six counts of larceny over $250 and one count of larceny by check. He has plead not guilty and his attorney Doug Louison has said Atkins used the money for things like equipment and that he kept bad records, but did not commit larceny.

Louison said Atkins is a “decorated, honorable” member of the Chelsea Police department and he is eager to put the case behind him so he can get back to work as a cop and a coach.

However, prosecutors say Atkins withdrew thousands of dollars from the Chelsea football team’s bank account near a strip club, a racetrack, a casino, and a downtown Boston sports bar.

“This case is about arrogance. It’s about deceit. And it’s about the compulsive behavior of the defendant, James Atkins,” said Beagan.

Beagan told a Suffolk Superior Court jury that Atkins, a Chelsea Police sergeant currently suspended from duty, used his position as a head coach and president of the Chelsea High School football team to embezzle almost $10,000 from a bank account meant to support the team’s expenses – funds that had been raised in large part by the young players’ families.

Concerns first voiced by the players’ families prompted an investigation by the Chelsea Police Department and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to Conley’s office. Beagan said investigators calculated the money Atkins contributed to the team and the amount he withdrew, learning that Atkins had overcompensated himself to the tune of more than $9,000.

According to Beagan, in January of 2007, Atkins attended a meeting with Chelsea High School students’ parents and the school’s athletic director and agreed to repay $8,200 over a series of installments. Beagan said Atkins did not make any of the payments and tried to pass off a $1,000 donation he received from a respected and past donor to the team as a payment from himself.

Beagan also detailed the locations of the various cash withdrawals, including a $500 withdrawal at about 1:40 a.m. on Dec. 13, 2006, from an ATM “right across the rotary from the Squire Lounge,” a Revere strip club; additional three-figure withdrawals near the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut and the Seabrook Greyhound Park dog racing track in New Hampshire; and in Bessemer, Alabama, where Atkins’ grandmother lives, in July 2006.

Beagan said Atkins also used the account’s ATM card in February 2005 to pay a $634 bar tab at the Champions Sports Bar located in Boston’s Marriott Copley Place hotel.

“These ATM withdrawals occurred in secret,” said Beagan.

Shortly after Atkins was hired in Medford for the Fall 2007 season, he was placed on paid administrative leave by Medford and was not allowed to coach pending the outcome of an investigation by the Suffolk County DA.

He was later indicted midway into the 2008 football season and just two months after school officials announced Atkins was cleared to return as the head football coach in Medford.  At the time School Superintendent Roy Belson said no charges had been filed and that Medford has waited long enough for the situation to be resolved.

He has been suspended without pay from the Medford football program this season pending the outcome of his case.  Former Everett assistant coach Rico Dello Iacono has been hired as Medford’s head coach.

Atkins was recognized in November of 2005 as the New England Patriots Coach of the Week for his work in turning the Chelsea football team around.   He took over the team prior to the 2004 season, and took them from not being able to field a varsity team in 2003 to having a 15-6 record in 2004 and 2005.  The award also lauded Atkins for encouraging his players to focus on school so they could graduate and receive college scholarships.