WESTBROOK – Twelve members of the Westbrook High School 2013 varsity baseball state championship team spent the last weeks of summer completing 40 hours of community service to avoid criminal vandalism charges.

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office released a statement Tuesday saying that a dozen of the athletes admitted to vandalism on June 15 at the Wainwright Field Athletic Complex in South Portland, paid $500 each and completed community service to clean up the field and repair the golf carts wrecked during the incident.

The team members reached an agreement through the district attorney’s office to pay a $500 fine, write a letter of apology and do community service in lieu of being charged with criminal vandalism.

In June, Westbrook shut out Messalonskee High School to win the school’s first state baseball championship in 62 years. Members of the team celebrated their win at a home in South Portland near Wainwright Field, according to information provided by District Attorney Stephanie Anderson. Anderson said members of the team took golf carts from the storage building and then returned them damaged. The fields were also damaged and all garbage cans and several lacrosse goals were mangled in the process.

Anderson said the golf carts looked like the students had been “playing bumper cars” with them.

The shenanigans caused more than $6,000 in damage to the field and equipment.

“Some may think they got off easy because they’re athletes,” said Anderson. “I don’t think they got off easy. A judge could have given them community service or a fine, but I don’t think it would have been $500 from each of them.”

Anderson said because the members of the team stepped forward to claim responsibility for the damage and showed remorse for their actions, both sides were able to reach an agreement that Anderson said wouldn’t affect the scholarships or futures of anyone on the team.

“It appeared they weren’t out to damage anything,” Anderson said.

Attorney Sarah Churchill, of Nichols, Webb, & Loranger, is credited with bringing the deal together.

About two weeks after the incident, Churchill called South Portland Detective Sgt. Steve Webster and informed him she represented one of the people responsible for the damage, and that the group was ready to come forward to apologize and make amends.

“Individuals approached me about this particular incident and ultimately, through the hard work of a lot of people, we were able to have the individuals responsible accept responsibility and accept punishment for what happened. It’s closed and everybody’s moving forward,” said Churchill on Tuesday afternoon.

Anderson said none of the names of those involved were released because some involved were 18 and heading off the college or the service, while others were minors, but as they would be subjected to the same punishment, it would be difficult to keep the minors’ names from being known.

She said she was not aware whether anyone had been kicked off the team.

The apology letter reads:

“We are writing to express our sincere apologies to the City, its staff, and all members of the communities that were affected by the damage that we caused to the Wainwright Athletic Complex. Our actions were stupid and extremely disrespectful. We accept full responsibility for what we did. ln the moment, none of us realized how our actions would affect so many people.

“We are very fortunate that we have been given the chance to do what we can to make this right by paying restitution and performing community service. All of us have learned a lot from this situation. In the future, we will not act before considering what the consequences of our actions might be.”

Neither Marc Sawyer, the school’s athletic director, nor Greg Souza, the baseball coach, returned calls for comment by the American Journal’s deadline Wednesday.

“The Westbrook School Department did not participate in and was not a party to the plea agreement referred to in the press release by the district attorney,” said Superintendent Marc Gousse. “The School Department takes very seriously any report of improper activity by its students but cannot comment further on investigations into student activity.”