The man who resigned as a co-owner of Skowhegan restaurant after a social media video surfaced appearing to show him taking a lewd photo of a young woman has been charged by local police with violation of privacy.
Eric Dore, 43, was charged Tuesday with the Class D misdemeanor charge after meeting with an officer, according to a statement Wednesday by Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam. Skowhegan officer Tyler Lafreniere, the lead investigating officer, met with Dore and his attorney at the police department to discuss the incident.
The unidentified victim is 19 years old, Bucknam said.
In the video posted to Facebook on Sunday, Dore, a co-owner of the Old Mill Pub in Skowhegan, can be seen interacting with the woman as she stands at the rear of a car filling out paperwork. At one point he walks behind her and appears to position his cellphone below her skirt before placing the phone in the car.
Dore was not at work at the time of the incident, Bucknam said in the statement, adding that the matter was still under investigation.
Dore has an initial appearance scheduled in Skowhegan District Court on Oct. 12.
The incident gained widespread attention after a recording was posted to Facebook by a Madison resident named Katie Perry. Her post said the video was taken by a person inside a nearby building who began recording after noticing photos being taken of the young woman, who had been described in the post as a teenager. The video drew tens of thousands of views and was shared more than 1,500 times.
The Dore family purchased the restaurant in 2012 from the McCarthy family when it was known as McCarthy’s Old Mill Pub.
Benjamin Dore, Eric Dore’s brother and a co-owner of the restaurant, told the Morning Sentinel on Tuesday that the incident was “absolutely a shock” to the family and the owners of the restaurant agreed to remove Eric Dore as a co-owner. Dore’s wife will remain a co-owner of the restaurant.
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