Tollefson jury sent home for night, to resume deliberation today

AFTER SIX HOURS of deliberation yesterday, a Bucks County jury remained deadlocked on a verdict for ex-sportscaster Don Tollefson, and the judge sent them home for the night.

Judge Rea Boylan sent jurors home about 9:30 p.m. and told them to return this morning for more deliberations in the charity-fraud trial that has occupied the nearly vacant Bucks County Courthouse for 12 days.

Tollefson sat stoned-faced yesterday morning as chief prosecutor Matt Weintraub lambasted him during closing arguments before a packed courtroom.

"The defendant was selling dreams, because there was no reality behind them," he said.

Weintraub described Tollefson's actions during 2011-13 as an "elaborate pyramid scheme" in which he "robbed from Peter to pay Paul."

"The defendant didn't feel the law applied to him, and that was no accident," he said. "That was intentional . . . he was making promises that were too good to be true."

The former sportscaster for Fox 29 and 6ABC is charged with theft by deception, dealing in the use of unlawful proceeds, intent to deceive and conceal, soliciting funds under the guise of a charitable organization and money-laundering.

In his defense, Tollefson called several character witnesses, many of whom attested to his generosity and his good-times vibes. But reference also was made to his "chaotic and disorganized" trip-planning style by his last witness, a quadriplegic Marine whom he took to New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.

"I'm not going to stand in front of you and claim that alcohol and opiates caused what happened to happen. I did. I, Don Tollefson, caused what happened to happen. But there are explanations," he said during his closing.

"Tolly," as he's known by many, accused prosecutors of creating assumptions and overlooking facts.

He maintained throughout the trial that in 2013, when law enforcement began to investigate him for defrauding his own charity, Winning Ways, he was also in rehab battling addiction to alcohol and prescription painkillers.

During this time, he claimed, his lawyers advised him not to have any further contact with anyone who donated to his charity, because it could incriminate him. That included the 200 victims he allegedly bilked out of phony sports-travel packages.

"I did deliver tickets," Tollefson said. "When I was no longer able to, I explained to people that I was canceling their trips and that this had started to fall apart financially and I would make every effort - as long as it took - to make good."

After he lost his job with Fox 29, Tollefson worked with the Philadelphia Eagles covering preseason play-by-plays and acting as a part-time familiar face of Eagles coverage.

He said that in those years, he often received gifts of Eagles memorabilia, much of it unsellable.

Tollefson, who has represented himself throughout the trial, testified that "again and again" he tried to sell items he thought were valuable, including his wife's KitchenAid mixer that he sold on eBay and a football signed by NFL coach Tony Dungy. The football, he claimed, wasn't worth selling because it would have netted him only $50 even though he originally bought it for $1,000.

"I was being offered pennies on the dollar," he said.

"I tried to turn over the proverbial 'every stone.' There's no doubt I owe people money. . . . I'm to blame because I didn't see it coming.

"My heart shudders at what I did. I will forever live a life of humiliating reflection," he told the jury in closing arguments, maintaining that he never believed he was violating the law but simply had poor bookkeeping habits.

"I have a long list of Don Tollefson stupidity, like the Dead Sea Scrolls," he said.

Throughout the trial, Weintraub circled back to the same looming question: Just what did Tollefson do with the $340,000 in allegedly misspent funds he took from donors, for which he gave nothing in return?

"He spent the money on himself," Weintraub contended in closing arguments. "The fact that he may have been intoxicated or on drugs is not a defense."

Weintraub accused Tollefson of "grooming" his victims - getting them accustomed to seeing him at charitable events, appearing in photographs with Winning Ways kids and at sporting events.

"He's very personable. He can get you to like him and to trust him. The Ponzi scheme works until the money runs out."