January 15, 2015
Handout/for PhillyVoice
Former sportscaster Don Tollefson is defending himself in court against fraud charges.
A recess was called Thursday morning for the fraud trial of Don Tollefson after the sportscaster said his blood sugar was too high, according to CBSPhilly.
The diabetic 62-year-old was taken to Doylestown Hospital to be checked out. CBSPhilly reports that the prosecutor’s cross-examination of Tollefson is expected to continue Thursday afternoon.
The former Philadelphia sportscaster is accused of tricking sports fans and charitable donors into purchasing more than $340,000 worth of fraudulent sports travel packages.
Tollefson continued to tell personal anecdotes on the witness stand during the third day of his defense trial in Bucks County Court on Wednesday, according to The Morning Call.
Amid the stories of the good work he has done in his personal life, Tollefson continued to mention how bad of a businessman he is.
The Morning Call reports that Tollefson tried to introduce exhibits he had not shown to prosecutors, causing jurors to be removed from the courtroom twice in a 15-minute period. Bucks County Judge Rea Boylan warned Tollefson to stay on track several times, to which he replied, "My bad."
Prosecutor Matt Weintraub took over later in the day.
According to The Morning Call story:
Weintraub, the county's chief of prosecution, cross-examined Tollefson for more than an hour, asking him about purchases made with a debit card linked to a charity bank account.
Tollefson admitted using the card 51 times at CVS and 25 times at Walgreens, spending more than $3,200 at the drugstores. He admitted that he had a painkiller addiction at the time and bought drugs with the card, but said he felt entitled as the only employee of the charity, Winning Ways.
Weintraub quizzed Tollefson about purchases made with charity money at beer distributors and liquor stores. He pointed out 14 payments to a dog-sitting service, two to a dog-grooming business and one $100 debit to an animal-cloning service.
Tollefson's answers were long and full of stories, The Morning Call reports.
