In 2005, an elderly Bristol woman gave $3,000 to support federal agents working to rid her community of illegal drugs.

Gwendolyn Swank paid that money to Rodney Chapman, who is in no way affiliated with law enforcement of any kind. Over the next five years, Swank paid Chapman more than $300,000, according to a letter written by Legal Services for the Elderly’s attorney Denis Culley and filed in Lincoln County Superior Court.

Swank was told she had agents living in her garage and dead bodies under her porch. She was told her safety and that of her neighbors was in jeopardy, Culley wrote.

Chapman pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced to serve 3.5 years in state prison. He was ordered to pay Swank $150,000 restitution.

In addition to the criminal case, Swank filed a civil suit against him. Chapman wrote a letter from prison saying he did not wish to contest the civil suit or appear at any hearings.

On June 12, a Lincoln County Superior Court justice ruled in Swank’s favor in a civil suit against Chapman. He was ordered to pay her the $373,967 he stole plus an additional $1,000,000: $500,000 for the emotional suffering and loss of enjoyment the theft caused her, and $500,000 in punitive damages.

When Chapman was on trial for theft, he asked the court to hire a lawyer for him. He reported that he was a self-employed woodsman who’d been unemployed for a year. The only income he reported was $200 a month in food stamps.

The chances that he will come up with Swank’s money are “probably not very likely,” Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Robert McFetridge said following the conclusion of the civil suit.

The 32-year veteran of law enforcement tried to track the money while the criminal case was pending. Chapman said he blew it on appliances and other items, “and the best I can tell, that’s what he did,” McFetridge said.

Chapman’s case is typical, McFetridge said: when an older person loses money to a person with ill intent, even when prosecution is successful, recovery of the money less likely.

Prior to the ordeal with Chapman, Swank always paid her bills and kept careful records, only to then become a “victim of financial violence,” attorney Culley wrote in his letter to the court.

The pattern of theft was uncovered partly as a result of Swank’s acquaintances’ concerns, combined with her bank’s concerns over bad checks that were completely out of character for Swank, McFetridge said.

“Gwendolyn’s (Swank’s) life is not what it was before, and that can be disheartening. But she’s out of a very bad situation and she is back in control of her life,” McFetridge said.

Although Swank may never receive her money, she is doing “remarkably well,” Culley said June 28. “She’s a strong person.”