EUGENE, Ore. – The woman accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Eugene Weekly, a local newspaper, is no longer in police custody after Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s office declined to pay for her extradition from Ohio.
The Eugene Weekly reported earlier in May that Elisha Young, 38, was arrested in Whitehall, Ohio after a traffic stop. She was wanted in Lane County on five felony charges, accused of embezzling money while working as the Eugene Weekly’s business manager. The paper first reported the theft late in 2023, saying it nearly shut them down and left them more than $100,000 in debt.
According to the Eugene Weekly, Young walked out of jail shortly after she was arrested because the office of Oregon Governor Tina Kotek declined to pay for her extradition. The paper said they were never notified, and only found out Young had been released when they called the jail in Ohio themselves. Camilla Mortensen, the editor in chief at the Eugene Weekly, said the decision not to extradite felt like a betrayal…