One of our more disturbing stories this week is the allegation that a Damariscotta man may have bilked an elderly Bristol woman out of more than $200,000 while representing himself as a fundraiser for a charitable organization.
At this point, the allegation is just that, an unproven allegation. The accused, Rodney Chapman, is due his day in court and deserves the presumption of innocence unless and until the state can prove otherwise.
We hold this story up because the charge may not have followed if friends of the victim didn’t get involved. Hearing about the arrangement, apparently the friends were suspicious enough to contact law enforcement.
We commend the friends for their action. We don’t know any more than we are reporting on the issue, but we do know it is easy to talk yourself out of doing something, particularly if you are not sure.
Who wants to openly doubt something and be proven wrong?
However, oftentimes when something doesn’t feel right it is because something isn’t right. When everything is on the up and up, the worst that could happen would be police looking into it and finding everything is in order.
It’s not meddling to ask the question and any charitable organization or individual fundraiser worthy of your attention and money would have no problem producing credentials to assuage any concerns.
