Tollefson says honest mistakes were his undoing

To hear Don Tollefson tell it, he committed no crimes. He just cared too much.

In the opening statement of his fraud trial Tuesday, the former sportscaster claimed he was so busy helping others - poor city kids, wounded veterans, Philadelphia firefighters - that he lost track of his finances.

He meant to deliver all of the sports-related travel packages he sold in the name of charity, he said, and still intends to.

"But the money ran out," said Tollefson, who is serving as his own lawyer. "Mistakes were made."

Speaking to a Bucks County Court jury, Tollefson offered his first public response to allegations that he used his celebrity to dupe about 200 sports fans - and the family of a fallen police officer - out of about $340,000. It was a wide-ranging explanation.

For instance, Tollefson said he cared so much about fighting racism that he took children to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to explain how the African American track star Jesse Owens defied Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

"I was trying to do too much, particularly for children you will hear on the stand," he said. "The evidence will show that I did not personally benefit" from the money.

Even when the fraud allegations surfaced and he was driving to rehab in October 2013, Tollefson said, he was helping Philadelphia firefighters get tickets to a pro football game.

"The money ran out because I'm a bad businessman," he said. "If I were a good businessman, my wife would not be filing for bankruptcy and then for divorce."

Matt Weintraub, chief of prosecutions for the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, countered by telling the jury that Tollefson had the trust of nearly everyone he knew and abused it for personal gain.

Comparing Tollefson to the Pied Piper, Weintraub said greed compelled him to fleece people with promises of low-cost trips to Eagles road games. The prosecutor promised a long list of witnesses, bank account statements, and court documents to prove it.

"Philadelphia is a real sports area. We're a sports town," Weintraub said about the ease with which someone like Tollefson could sell the bogus packages. "We also love a good deal."

After the opening statements, Weintraub called several witnesses. They included Tollefson's wife, Marilyn, who exercised her right to refuse to testify against her husband, and several alleged victims.

But the first witness was Tom Fox, father of Plymouth Township Police Officer Bradley Fox, who was slain in the line of duty in 2012.

Fox said he invited Tollefson to help host a charity event for the officer's wife and children in Warminster. Tollefson sold travel packages to an Eagles game in Denver for $500 apiece. Tollefson promised that some of the proceeds would go to the foundation supporting Fox's family.

No one got tickets.

"The foundation got zero," Tom Fox said.

The trial is to resume Wednesday.