Eugene Weekly’s former business manager, Elisha Young, is going to prison for 36 months on five felony counts of first degree theft following a May 27 sentencing hearing at Lane County Circuit Court. She also will have two years post prison supervision.
Young was taken into custody by Lane County Sheriff’s deputies following the hearing in front of a packed courtroom that included Weekly staff members, supporters, journalism students and the Weekly’s editor, Camilla Mortensen.
The sentencing marks the culmination of a three-year investigation showing Young knowingly stole money from the Weekly by writing herself checks, withdrawing cash from company accounts and increasing her salary by more than $30,000 while other employees took pay cuts. The Weekly, its accountants and Eugene police could prove in court that she stole over $130,000 from the Weekly.
The embezzlement resulted in the Weekly shutting down just before Christmas 2023, laying off all its employees and going out of print for the first time in over 40 years. As a result of resounding community support, the paper was able to rebound and resume printing Feb. 8, 2024.
News of the embezzlement garnered nationwide attention — it was featured in The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Washington Post and other newspapers across the state and country.
During the hearing, Young’s court-appointed lawyer Brian Walker read a statement saying Young felt remorseful, and her actions largely resulted from an addiction to cocaine. The statement also said, “She’s grateful to the community rallying together behind the paper.”
Walker said Young had weighed more than 300 pounds before her bariatric surgery that was performed in Mexico, which shifted her addiction from food to alcohol and then drugs. Walker said had Young been screened for addictive behaviors prior to surgery, “all the risk factors hopefully would have been identified.”
Walker added that initially, Young had planned to pay back the money and knew she was “never going to get away with this.”
Mortensen read a victim impact statement to Young on behalf of the paper, saying, “Day-in day-out, for years, you were stealing money from a newspaper that you know works to make this community and world a better place in which to live.”
As Judge Erin Fennerty delivered the sentence, she addressed Young, saying “You might be grateful for the community rallying around and providing support, but it was support that never should have had to have been provided. The action that you took was very, very damaging, and it is my hope that you will change in time.”
She continued, “You will have to reflect on the choices that you made and the impacts that those have had, and the steps that you need to take.”
Mortensen says the Weekly will be seeking a restitution agreement within the coming months.
“It’s important she pays restitution,” Mortensen says. “She owes that to the paper as well as the community.” Since the embezzlement, the Weekly has remained in print, although the scars of the incident remain.
Anita Johnson, former Weekly owner, passed away just one year after the embezzlement came to light. “Anita spent the last year of her life in the wake of your selfish and destructive actions,” Mortensen said in her statement. “And yet, Anita lived to see that you, Elisha, had failed to destroy Eugene Weekly and the spirit that it inspires.”
She added, “I can only hope that you use the time to turn yourself around, recover from your addiction, pay your debt to this community and its newspaper, and make amends to those you hurt.”
Young is currently in Lane County Jail and will be transferred into custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections, where she will serve her sentence in a state prison. You can read the victim impact statement here.