LYNN — Lynn Community Television will receive the $20,000 from the Office of the Attorney General that was paid to the state as part of Lynn Community Access & Media, Inc. litigations.
The court reached final judgement in the case against former Lynn Community Access & Media (LynnCAM) employees Karen Chapman, John Chapman, Robert Sewell, Almanzo Rodriguez, and Cynthia Demakes on Oct. 21. Simultaneously, Attorney General Maura Healey requested to release assets that have been kept in an escrow account. This motion was approved as well.
The Chapmans reached a consent judgment and paid $20,000 into an escrow fund established by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) as restitution in 2018. According to that judgement, the state was to transfer these funds to a charity operating in Massachusetts for “educational and/or television purposes, including public, education, and governmental local cable-access programming.”
The AGO determined that Lynn Community Television (LCTV) has purposes and performs activities “as near as possible to LynnCAM’s prior purposes and activities.”
“We are thrilled to receive $20,000,” said Robert Tucker, president of the LCTV Board of Directors. “I think the fact that this money is going to Lynn Community Television is a testament to the outstanding work that Lynn Community Television is providing to the city of Lynn.”
The money will go towards offsetting the cost of the programming, Tucker said. The annual budget of LCTV is $580,000.
LynnCAM was a charitable corporation organized in 2005 for the primary purpose of operating “a community television studio for public, educational, and municipal access.”
The AGO filed the action against LynnCAM’s directors in March 2015.
Karen Chapman was the former president of LynnCAM. She allegedly received more than $14,800 in payroll checks between 2012 and 2014, despite the fact that the bylaws prohibited her from receiving compensation for her work there. Her husband, John Chapman, a plumber, used LynnCAM funds to purchase items used in connection with his business and never repaid the organization.
Chapman was also allegedly paid more than $30,000 by LynnCAM in after-tax salary between 2012 and 2014, despite the fact that he was not an employee and a provision in the bylaws prohibits the organization from hiring relatives of its officers and directors.
Sewell, then LynnCAM’s president, and Rodriguez, Sewell’s brother-in-law, allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars from the local cable channel.
Under the terms of the deal, Sewell and Rodriguez did not admit wrongdoing. The agreement did not require any repayment of the stolen cash to the cable station.
Demakes, the treasurer of LynnCAM, was accused of not exercising proper oversight over LynnCAM’s affairs and failing to prevent the misappropriation and misuse of its charitable funds.
According to consent judgments, Chapmans and Sewell were barred for life from accepting any positions as a fiduciary at any public charity operating within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Rodriguez and Demakes were prohibited from accepting any positions as a fiduciary at any public charity operating within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for five years from July 18, 2018.
LynnCAM ceased programming in 2015, and in 2016 LCTV was launched by then-Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, using cable-access money paid to the city by Verizon and Comcast to fund LCTV operations.
In June 2020, a judge allowed the sale of the LynnCAM’s building on Western Avenue. LynnCAM used the proceeds of the sale to resolve its debt obligations and engaged in a wind down of its activities.
