A man employed by a Seabrook-based carnival has been charged with raping two girls in Marshfield over the weekend.
Jeffrey Witham, 18, of Oxford, Maine, had been recently hired by Fiesta Shows as a ticket collector, owner Gene Dean said. Witham exchanged phone numbers with two girls, 13 and 14 years old, while at a fair in Marshfield and went to the home of one of the girls on Sunday, according to police. He was charged with two counts of raping a child by force and was held on $150,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty Monday at Plymouth District Court.
Dean said Fiesta Shows performs background checks on all its employees, and Witham had no criminal record. He had been hired in Skowhegan, Maine, and had only worked at one other carnival in Acton, Maine, before the Marshfield carnival, Dean said.
"What can you do? We can't predict the future," Dean said. "You can look at past records and deny someone employment and hope you make the right judgment ... this gentleman could've worked for Wal-Mart or the barbershop."
Public defender Kathleen Iaccarino said Witham was working to support his girlfriend and their 5-month-old baby.
Witham had been living on-site in one of the Fiesta Shows trailers, Dean said. He said he did not know if Witham had been in contact with the girls, but "we certainly would not want that kind of fraternization."
Fiesta Shows employs about 120 people on a seasonal basis, Dean said, and shuts down in the winter for maintenance at its base in Seabrook. The company has a dress code and grooming policy, and employees wear ID badges, according to its Web site.
Dean said his "prayers and heart go out" to the girls and their families, and that Fiesta Shows was cooperating fully with the investigation.
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