A candidate for the Winthrop Town Council, Kim Dimes, issued a public apology after reports were posted to social media describing her 2012 conviction on charges of stealing money from a little league baseball league that she led in Washington state.

“Thirteen years ago, I made a serious mistake,” Ms Dimes said in a statement posted to her campaign’s page on Facebook. “A mistake that was made out of desperation at the lowest point of my life.”

Ms Dimes issued the statement shortly after another posting on Facebook referenced articles from The Columbian newspaper in the city of Vancouver, in the southwestern part of Washington state, that described her conviction on charges of embezzling more than $11,000 from the East County Little League in the nearby city of Washougal.

The articles described Ms Dimes, as president of the little league group, writing 60 checks to herself from the league’s checkbook in 2009 and 2010. She pleaded guilty in the case and was ordered to pay restitution and to serve 30 days on a jail work crew, the articles said.

The public revelation in Winthrop of her 2012 conviction came three months after Ms Dimes announced her candidacy for the Precinct 2 seat on the Winthrop Town Council, and three weeks before the town’s general election.

Six council elections

The town’s election ballot includes six seats on the Winthrop Town Council – those of the council’s president, one of the council’s town-wide at-large seats, and the council seats for four of the town’s six geographic-based precincts.

A key issue across all the council races is the current Town Council’s refusal to comply with the statewide housing law known as 3A, which aims to expand zones that allow multifamily housing. Ms Dimes is part of a faction that has argued against compliance with the state law, despite consequences that include the potential loss of state funding. That anti-3A faction recently failed in an extended campaign to force the ouster of another Town Council member largely over his support for 3A compliance, and some of its leaders condemned the public revelation of her felony judgment in Washington state, arguing that it was mean-spirited and timed to cause Ms Dimes political harm.

And a current member of the Winthrop Town Council, Rob DeMarco, an opponent of 3A compliance who is not seeking re-election, minimized the importance of the Washington state case, declaring in his own Facebook posting: “13 years ago. Not in Winthrop and has done more for the town in the last 10 years than a lot of people.”

Ms Dimes, an employee of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, currently chairs the Winthrop Conservation Commission and serves as a member of the Citizens Advisory Commission on Climate.

In her response to the revelation of the Washington state conviction, Ms Dimes made no attempt to blame anyone else for the situation. “I took full responsibility, admitted guilt and paid my debt to society,” she wrote. “I regret it deeply and what I did was wrong. The consequences of my actions were significant and I will always carry that humility with me.”

Ms Dimes added: “I am not the same person I was then. I have grown, learned and dedicated myself to being a better citizen, neighbor, and leader. My experiences have given me a deeper understanding of justice, redemption, and the challenges that so many in our communities face.”