TOPIC: Fatal error: Cannot use string offset as an array...

I am upgrading a joomla 1.5 site to 2.5. In the process, upgrading to dtdonate 3.0.0.

When I try to save any configuration settings, I get the following error:

Fatal error: Cannot use string offset as an array in /home/scauti5/public_html/j25/administrator/components/com_dtdonate/models/config.php on line 35

config.php is as follows:

30 function saveConfig(){
31 $database =& JFactory::getDBO();
32
33 $sql="TRUNCATE TABLE `#__dtdonate_config` ";
34 $fields = $_REQUEST;
35 if($fields==1){
36 $fields = array (
37 'label' => 'DT_CONFIRM_EMAIL',
38 'required' => '1',
39 'show' => '1'
40 );
41 $_POST = $fields;
42 }

Any ideas what might be wrong? Thanks!