No jail time for former arena director

Posted on October 28, 2019
Curtis Webb
Curtis Webb was fired in 2016 as director of the downtown Bloomington arena, then known as U.S. Cellular Coliseum. (Photo courtesy VenuWorks)

 

By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – The former director of Bloomington’s downtown arena won’t have to go to jail for stealing money from city government. However, Curtis Webb still faces charges for a similar crime that happened when he managed a Minnesota arena.

McLean County Judge William Yoder ordered Webb to perform 100 hours of community service to be finished by April 30 of 2020, as part of his two years on conditional discharge.  Yoder also ordered Webb to pay $1,149.20 restitution to VenuWorks, which runs Grossinger Motors Arena.

McLean County prosecutor Aaron Hornsby said VenuWorks has reimbursed city taxpayers for all of Webb’s debit card charges he made for his personal use.  Webb had no prior felony convictions before a jury in August found him guilty of theft.

Hornsby argued for a two month jail sentence, a $3,000 fine, four years probation and restitution to punish Webb, and also deter others from committing the same type of crimes.

Charges filed in August by the the chief prosecutor in Bemidji, Minnesota accused Webb of making requests for tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent expense reimbursements when he was arena director there.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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