Taking another side bar, part of the problem is once momentum starts gaining full steam, accusations turn into rumors, rumors turn into gossip, gossip suddenly becomes fact, and then there is a mob mentality.
Here's an example. I've coached multiple youth sports for 15 or 20 years. One year I coached our son's baseball team and we had a Friday evening practice. My son had something else going on and was out of town, but I still held the practice. There was a girl on the team that had just turned 13 and was new in town. Practice ended but no one picked her up. Her parents had just gotten divorced and I called each of them and no one answered. We sat like two bumps on a log and waited for an hour at the field. It was pitch back in a remote location, and obviously I was not going to leave her alone. We drove to her house, which was locked up solid. I tried calling the parents again to no avail. I tried checking to see if any neighbors were around. No luck there either. I tried calling the head of the baseball program and the head of the youth sports program. No one answered those calls and left messages.
Not having any other avenues, I took her home. I had pizza delivered, plunked her down on my couch and let her hang out and watch TV. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there. Two hours later the mom called asking what was going on. She got mad . . . at her ex-husband . . . because she said it was his weekend to have her. He called a little while later and said actually, it was mom's weekend. I indicated to both of them that I am not a babysitter, and someone needed to come get her. But no one did right away, and when I called them both back, neither one answered.
Mom apparently was on a date and finally got home and checked her voicemail and found out her daughter was still with me. The father was out of town and out of state. Obviously he wasn't going to get the girl. Finally the mom showed up at my house after 1 AM to collect her daughter and then went ballistic at me that I had been home alone with her for hours.
Of course, the next day the mother did a deep dive on me on-line and found reference to my ongoing court issues including allegations that I abused my kids. She immediately went to the youth association demanding that I never coach anything again and that I had been alone with her daughter for hours. Of course she brought up the other allegations and threatened to sue them.
Clearly I did not harm her daughter in any way (and the daughter supported that, saying that I fed her and entertained her while waiting for someone to get her). Yet I got no thanks for feeding her and watching her for over 6 hours. Somehow in all of that, people tried to play me out as the bad guy. I ended up being allowed to continue on as a coach, but when the board voted people actually voted against me being allowed to remain as coach.