Darrin McGlinn: Defendants from West Alton Marina are innocent until proven guilty

To The Daily Sun,

It would be next to impossible to decipher the truth about what is happening at the West Alton Marina. The daily posting of news articles from WMUR, and The Laconia Daily Sun, are so overwhelming. It would make for a fascinating novel if it wasn't so harmful to the young, impressionable teenagers involved.

What do we know? Four former employees have filed a civil suit against this company and its owners a bit prematurely before a criminal case has been completed. I don't know what country you live in but I know that I live in one where the justice system presumes you are innocent until proven guilty. What does John Sherman of Sherman Law think we the public should think while he continues to smear this company without a court of law hearing the case?

I cannot imagine what it is like to be sexually exploited. Still, I can imagine that what we must do as adults to rid of any exploitation of children regardless of the situation begins with not throwing a 16-year girl into the conversation particularly if they can't remember if it was a "hug" or a "fist pump/handshake" witnessed. A fist pump and a hug are pretty distinguishable even to a 16-year-old. Was this young lady interrogated? What mental anguish she must be feeling whether it was intentional by the investigator or not. Needing to put Brian Fortier behind bars one way or another with the help of a 16-year-old girl, even when there is no evidence to incarcerate him on the original allegations, is shameful, to say the least.

With each new day, this smells like Fortier and his sisters are "guilty by association" and what is now at play here is something much different.

Darrin McGlinn

Scarborough, Maine