Former Columbia City parks director sentenced to work release for buying baseball cards

WHITLEY COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – Columbia City's former parks director was sentenced Monday following a 2023 investigation into “suspicious financial activity” involving baseball cards.

According to the Whitley County Prosecutor, Mark Green was sentenced to one year of work release, followed by two years of probation. Green was also ordered to pay $275,628 in damages, of which $175,000 has already been paid.

Green, 52, had been parks director for 20 years when he was fired in March 2023 over allegations that between 2018 and 2023 he took money from city accounts and the allegedly used to buy baseball cards worth thousands of dollars.

The Whitley County Prosecutor's Office, Indiana State Police and the Indiana State Board of Accounts have launched a formal investigation into what happened to the money in these accounts . Investigators determined that over a five-year period, Green used his municipal credit card to purchase nearly $250,000 in sports cards, while misleading invoices claimed the money was instead used to purchase equipment for the city.

Green had been charged with four Level 5 felony counts of corrupt business influence, three Level 5 felony counts of theft of property valued over $50,000 and one count of Level 6 felony charge for theft in which the property is between $750 and $50,000. He also faced a Level 6 felony charge of official misconduct.

In April, he pleaded guilty to one count of theft, and the other charges were dropped at sentencing Monday.