BEND, OR -- Three former employees of the Bend FC Timbers youth soccer team were charged last week with a Class C Misdemeanor. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel says the defendants were upset after the executive director was fired. Former Executive Director Tara Bilanski, former Assistant Director Jen Davin and former bookkeeper Emily Williams are accused of deleting hundreds of files from the club’s Google Drive and downloaded other files used to set up a competing club. 

"I asked the court to treat the matter as a violation, which is less than a crime. Think of it as a traffic ticket," Hummel tells KBND News, "So, what I’ve charged them with is not eligible for a jail sentence."

Hummel says this case is separate but related to an ongoing civil suit, "Attorneys on the other side of things have been - ‘pressuring’ is a fair word - pressuring me to throw the book at these people, and seek the maximum penalties." But, he says, their alleged crime is the modern-day equivalent to a disgruntled employee throwing files in a shredder, "And, while this does violate the law and they do need to be held accountable, what they are alleged to have done does not warrant the degree of punishment that the FC Timbers attorney was advocating for."