Attorney general taking LynnCAM to court

Attorney General Maura Healey filed a court complaint Thursday against Lynn Community Access and Media, Inc. alleging the nonprofit?s directors, its former president, and a former employee, who has been indicted, “abused their positions of power and were responsible for the misappropriation of charitable funds.”The complaint asks the court to effectively dissolve the community cable access studio?s board of directors, stating that members Robert Sewell, Cynthia Demakes, Almanzo Rodriguez and Lawrence McCully “cannot be trusted to act on LynnCAM?s behalf.”Much of the 44-page complaint focuses on Lynn resident Karen Chapman, who resigned as LynnCAM president last September, and her husband, John, who was indicted last July and subsequently pleaded not guilty in connection to charges detailing $34,000 stolen from LynnCAM.The AG?s complaint states John Chapman maintained an account with a check cashing service called Revere Redemption Center. Between March 2012 and January 2014, according to the complaint, 85 LynnCAM checks totaling $47,523 were cashed.According to the complaint, 25 of the checks were LynnCAM payroll checks totaling $8,600 written payable to John Chapman. Another 45 checks were signed on behalf of Karen Chapman totaling nearly $30,000, and the other checks were written to businesses, according to the AG, “believed to be owned by Althea Shea, who is the daughter of Karen and John Chapman.”?At a minimum, John Chapman misappropriated the proceeds of at least 29 of the Revere Redemption Center Checks and quite likely more ?” the complaint states.John Chapman on Thursday said check cashing details outlined in the complaint are “not true.”?This is all drummed up,” he said.Karen Chapman, in a Thursday interview, said she signed LynnCAM checks as president and said the access studio had financial controls in place, including a bookkeeper, accountant and a payroll service, during her tenure as president from 2006 to 2014.?Everything was in order,” she said.But the AG?s complaint refers to “current and former LynnCAM employees” who stated that the Chapmans “regularly used their LynnCAM debit cards to fuel their own cars or purchase meals at restaurants.”Karen Chapman said any purchases the couple made “were all legal.”?Everything we did, the accountant approved everything,” she said.In filing the complaint, Healey stated she hopes the AG?s office can return to LynnCAM all misappropriated money detailed in the complaint.?Actions such as the ones alleged here cause financial harm to the charity and its mission and undermine the public?s trust,” Healey said.The complaint also states LynnCAM directors should “have known John Chapman was misappropriating LynnCAM funds.” Sewell, Rodriguez and Demakes could not be reached for comment, but McCully on Thursday said he “knew nothing about the John Chapman thing.”?His wife kept me so far away from there,” McCully said, adding he is unaware of the AG?s complaint.The attorney general?s action is the latest legal barrage to fall on LynnCAM, where four employees produce award-winning programming with help from Lynn residents and broadcast shows on Comcast channels 3 and 22 and Verizon channels 37 and 38.City attorneys moved late last year to divert payments from cable providers Comcast and Verizon from LynnCAM to the city and filed a January court complaint claiming LynnCAM ignored city requests to implement improved financial controls.LynnCAM, through Peabody attorney Emmanuel Papanickolas, launched its own accusations against the city, and Papanickolas said he will file within the next week a court complaint against the city for diverting cable company payments in order to gain financial control over the access studio.?They have assumed because John Chapman got indicted without any evidence that LynnCAM is stealing or wasting money. It?s none of their business; it?s an independent charitable organization,” Papanickolas said on Thursday.But the AG?s complaint lists expenditures “that did