CAMDEN, Maine - In Camden, the alleged theft of nearly $4 million in donations by the beloved former head of a prominent Mid-coast charity, has left many questions and few answers.
Rusty Brace moved in elite circles in Camden, convincing wealthy, philanthropically-minded residents to give money, repeatedly, to United Mid-Coast Charities. Brace now stands accused of routinely siphoning contributions into his own private bank accounts.
One episode, during Brace's earlier career in publishing and media on the Mid-coast, hints at possibly an arrogant, and less than trustworthy, side to his personality. But people who knew Brace in Camden never thought he'd be capable of the wrongdoing he's now suspected of.
In late September, Steve Crane asked Rusty Brace, the man he'd just replaced as head of United Mid-Coast Charities, to meet with him and the organization's treasurer.
"I won't forget this. I'm - what? - 72 years old. And I've seen a lot of things," Crane says.
Alone in a room, over the course of two days, the men showed Brace checks, made out to the charity, that he had endorsed and deposited into his own bank accounts. Brace eventually admitted to Crane that he'd taken millions of dollars in donations over a 15-year period.
"You're looking at somebody you've actually been a friend with," Crane says. "You're looking at somebody who you've worked with in this organization for 10-plus years. And you're trying to understand: How could someone do this?"
More specifically, asks Crane, how could Rusty Brace do this? "Megunticook Golf Club, the summer folk as well as the winter folk - yeah, he was well connected," Crane says. He was well respected."
Jim Heard runs Heard and Heard Real Estate in Camden. He's also serves as a town selectmen.
"The select board gave him an award," Heard says. " 'Thank you for all the work you've done!' Susan Collins gave him a flag that flew over the Capitol."
Heard, who's known Rusty Brace since 1983, says he's given money often over the years to United Midcoast Charities. Brace, he says, was extremely persuasive in his pitches to prospective donors.
Bettina Doulton talked about Brace's approach on a Maine Magazine podcast this summer, days before UMCC was to receive a big donation as part of Cellardoor Winery's annual Pop the Cause fundraising gala for non-profits. Doulton is Cellardoor's owner.
"He is absolutely engulfing in the way that he draws you into being a part of this community and supporting it," Doulton says. "He's fabulous, believes in what he does and you get swept up into it, quite frankly."
"There's a Jekyll and Hyde personality here," says Steve Crane, "because at the same time he was giving this image, to us and to the public, he was stealing money."
Crane says Brace, who's 81, could be controlling in his dealings with UMCC's 43-member board. Jim Heard noticed something else over the years. "I think he had a little streak of arrogance in him. If Rusty says 'X,' it's probably X."
But Brace's business career before he ran UMCC, includes at least one incident where his word was not exactly trustworthy.
"I've always thought of him as a devious, unethical person," says Bill Patten. In 1978, Patten was introduced to Rusty Brace by Hoddy Hildreth, the son of former Maine Gov. Horace Hildreth. Brace and the younger Hildreth were cousins.
At the time, Brace was running Diversified Communications. Patten was looking to move to Maine from Massachusetts and had unsuccessfully tried to buy the Maine Times newspaper. Brace offered to sell Patten and Dick Saltonstall the Belfast-based Republican Journal. Brace later confirmed the offer in writing.
But a short time later, Patten and Saltonstall learned that Brace had gone behind their backs and negotiated a much more lucrative deal with Whitney Communications, the New York-based media conglomerate. "Well, I was flabbergasted. Upset, angry," Patten says.
Whitney Communications eventually withdrew from its deal with Brace and Diversified, after the company learned of the earlier agreement. Diversified's board then forced Brace to go ahead and sell the Republican Journal to the two men. Brace was eventually forced out of his job at Diversified in 1981.