Hinsdale NH Police Chief Faulkner: He Has Left the Town IN Weakest Condition IN 50 Years

Updated Jan 18. 2020 scroll down to see my updates.

Reposted from 11/16

You got your selectman to blame for this.

Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner announced his resignation Monday to take a position with the Cheshire County Sheriff's Office.

KRISTOPHER RADDER - BRATTLEBORO REFORMER

After 23 years, Faulkner to leave Hinsdale police force

Posted Monday, November 4, 2019 8:00 pm

By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer

HINSDALE, N.H. — Todd Faulkner has been with the Hinsdale Police Department since 1996, starting out as a patrol officer, working his way up to chief of police in 2012.

On Monday night, Faulkner told the Hinsdale Board of Selectmen he was resigning to take a position as a lieutenant with the Cheshire County Sheriff's Office, effective Jan. 6.

"I will continue my work in bringing those who prey on children to justice," Faulkner said, reading from his resignation letter.

"With regret we accept your resignation and wish you the best in your future endeavors and the path you are taking," said Mike Darcy, chairman of the Hinsdale Board of Selectmen.

As part of his new responsibilities, Faulkner will be state supervisor as second in command of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in charge of field operations, search warrants, criminal investigations, digital forensics and review and oversight of all investigations. Faulkner will also be responsible for training, giving testimony to the state Legislature testimony, giving law enforcement presentations to include community education. He will also take on special assignments for advanced cases.

Faulkner will be based out of the Cheshire County Sheriff's Office with a secondary office at the Federal Building in Manchester.

Faulkner was appointed chief on July 2, 2012. During his time in Hinsdale, Faulkner has held the rank of senior patrolman, sergeant, and detective lieutenant. He has investigated more than 1,000 child physical and sexual abuse cases and hundreds of computer-related crimes.

Faulkner grew up in southeastern Vermont, in Brattleboro and Vernon, attended Brattleboro Union High School and began his career in law enforcement in 1990 when he graduated from the Vermont Police Academy. After graduating from Southern Maine Technical College with a degree in criminology, he went to work in nuclear security at the former Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon from 1992 until 1996, when he joined the Hinsdale Police Department as a patrolman.

During the Monday meeting, Det. Melissa Evans was promoted to lieutenant. If the board doesn't hire a new chief or bring someone on in an interim position, she will take over the duties of the chief. Evans has been with the Hinsdale Police Department for two-and-a-half years. Before that, she spent eight years with the Windham County Sheriff's Office.

Currently, the Hinsdale Police Department has six officers, including Faulkner. On Wednesday, that number will drop to five with the departure of Paul Samataro, who is taking a position with the Windham County Sheriff's Office, which is based in Newfane, Vt. Samataro is the handler for K9 Binx. It is unknown at this time if Binx will stay with Hinsdale or travel with Samataro to Newfane.

That leaves the department understaffed by five positions.

Faulkner said Hinsdale, like many towns its size, is struggling to fill positions on its police department because it can't offer the same starting pay as larger cities in the region. For instance, he said, while Hinsdale starts at $20 an hour, the Keene Police Department starts at $57,000 with a $10,000 sign-on bonus and relocation costs.

"And even they are having trouble getting officers," he said.

Also at Monday night's meeting were Cheshire County Sheriff

updated: You know, why was this a closed meeting other than to protect the people at the meeting. We are actually communist town of China or Russian! This meeting should have been recorded and up on the internet. If it was and a lot of people seen it, you could make the case they would be on a heightened state of alert for criminality.  

Eli Rivera, Chesterfield Police Chief Duane Chickering and N.H. State Police Troop C Commander Lt. Michael Kokoski to discuss in a non-public session of the meeting the security needs of Hinsdale.

(Updated)I recently was at a selectman's weekly meeting where the staties actually signed a contract with extra officers for Hinsdale. So we are in much worst condition than expected. Hinsdale is in a police emergency!   

Kokoski told the Reformer it would be highly unusual for the New Hampshire State Police to sign a contract with a town the town of Hinsdale to provide extra patrol officers while it's short-staffed. Normally, the state police only contracts with small towns that the state does not require to have a police force. However, he said, the N.H. State Police will continue to provide assistance when called upon by local officers.

Bob Audette can be contacted at 802-254-2311, ext. 151, or raudette@reformer.com.

Hope Creek's SRVs Still Continously Fail Testing

JAN O 6 2020 

Hope Creek Licensee Event Report 2019-002-00, Safety Relief Valve (SRV) As-found Set-point Failure

ABSTRACT (Limit to 1400 spaces, i.e., approximately 15 single-spaced typewritten lines) On November 08, 2019, Hope Creek Generating Station (HCGS) received results that the second 'as-found' set-point test for safety relief valve (SRV) pilot stage assemblies had exceeded the lift setting tolerance prescribed in Technical Specification (TS) 3.4.2.1. The TS requires the SRV lift settings to be within +/- 3% of the nominal set-point value. 

During the twenty-second refueling outage (H1 R22), all fourteen SRV pilot stage assemblies were tested at an offsite facility. Between October 22 and November 25, 2019, HCGS received the test results for all fourteen of the SRV pilot valve assemblies. A total of six of the fourteen SRV pilot stage assemblies were outside of the TS 3.4.2.1 specified values. All of the valves failing to meet the limits were Target Rock Model 7567F two-stage SRVs. 

Exceeding the set points for five of the six SRV pilot stage assemblies is attributed to corrosion bonding between the pilot discs and seating surfaces, which is consistent with industry experience. The cause of exceeding the sixth SRV set-point was pilot failure or spindle/disc contact wear.

Fitz (Both New LERs)

 The As-Found test results for the eleven Safety/Relief Valve (S/RV) pilot assemblies removed and replaced during the 2018 Refueling Outage at James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant (JAF) identified eight (8) S/RV pilot assemblies that lifted outside of the allowable tolerance required by Technical Specification Surveillance Requirement 3.4.3.1. Eight (8) two-stage S/RV’s were found out of tolerance high.  The eight S/RV pilot assemblies are assumed to have been inoperable at some point in the operating cycle that preceded the 2017 Refueling Outage resulting in a condition reportable pursuant to 10 CFR 50.73(a)(2)(i)(B). 

Unforseen Cracks In PWR CRDMs

See, this could be like the Davis Besse leaking CRDM beginning at Oconee. They had these host of leaking CRDMs and cracks the industry where constantly downplaying. One day a employee working on top of the head stumble, he grabbed the CRDM housing where he found it lose as hell. It almost surely would have created a meltdown if the crack would have burst.    

Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3
@Westinghouse
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Document Control Desk 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852
Westinghouse Electric Company 1000 Westinghouse Drive Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania 16066 USA
Direct tel: (412) 374-2577 Direct fax: (724) 940-8542 e-mail: zozulact@westinghouse.com
LTR-NRC-19-79
December 12, 2019
Subject: Notification of the Potential Existence of Defect Pursuant to 10 CFR Part 21
The following information is provided pursuant to the requirements of 10 CFR Part 21 to report a defect that could lead to a substantial safety hazard (SSH.)
During a 2019 planned outage at a Westinghouse plant, site personnel identified a fractured and dislocated control rod drive mechanism (CROM) thermal sleeve. The fracture occurred just beneath the worn area of the flange in the full cross-section of the thermal sleeve tube. A stress concentration exists at this transition. Previous operating experience (OE) with thermal sleeve failures did not include a crosssectional thermal sleeve fracture such as this.
Additional data supplied from the affected plant showed evidence of additional thermal sleeve locations with crack-like indications in the flange collar region (i.e., evidence of degradation but not failure). Although there was no evidence that control rod motion was hindered, Westinghouse is conservatively reporting this condition as having the potential to create a SSH, were it to remain uncorrected. 

They are not supposed to use these abbreviations. There are suppose to use plain language. This just goes to the extent they obscuring the true conditions of the industry.     

(i) Name and address of the individual or individuals informing the Commission.
Camille T. Zozula Westinghouse Electric Company 1000 Westinghouse Drive Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania 16066
(ii) Identification of the facility, the activity, or the basic component supplied for such facility or such activity within the United States which fails to comply or contains a defect.
Based on the recent OE where an additional means of mechanical failure has been identified (i.e., fracture, in addition to flange wear) and is not specifically being inspected for, there is a potential that one or more drive rods (basic components) could become jammed by a thermal sleeve flange remnant.
(iii) Identification of the firm constructing the facility or supplying the basic component which fails to comply or contains a defect.
Westinghouse Electric Company

Something Was Always Missing From AA...But It Saved My life.

My personhood was crushed by my alcoholic parents and the death of my father at seven years old. The whole system stigmatized me with living in a low income project. A throw away or poor  latch key child child. My mother loved me, but she did terrible things to me when she was drunk and all by herself. She never prepared me for the future. I think she lead a terribly neglected childhood with her being passed to relatives. Her parents were dead by the time she was 12. We were all traumatized by the deaths of our relatives at a very early age: death, destruction and disruptions all around us.  So you can't cure my alcoholism designed for stock brokers and the billionaires, their problems developed most from oversized egos and failure. On my first  drink, I remember the booze taking away magically all the sorrows and burdens I carried on my shoulders. The shame of being poor, living in a low income inner city housing project and somehow causing my father's death. And the pain of my father's death at 42 years old, an alcoholic mom with a infant and two children. It was a utterly tragic situation and somehow I survived it. The pain of that for years was so astronomically deep even till today. I somehow blamed myself for this, I was either dead drunk, or I wanted the world to beat the shit out of me for causing this tragedy. Or I  made them beat the shit out of me. My father Joe Mulligan was dead by congestive alcoholic heart failure by the age of 42 years old. He was called up for WW II and the Korean war. Maybe PTSD?  He had seen a lot of shit. This is freakin so tragic I can hardly talk about it today. I got so many deep scares on me today. I am more like this women than the billionaire Wall-Streeters: 

  Quite the opposite: They’re drinking because they have so little power, because all they’ve ever done is follow the rules and humble themselves, because their egos have been crushed under a system that reduces their value to subservience, likability and silence.

The Patriarchy of Alcoholics Anonymous

— from medically assisted treatments to cognitive behavioral therapy to the emerging use of psychedelics including psilocybin. For most of the people I know who have found success in recovery, it isn’t just one but a combination of treatments that ultimately works.

Women are the fastest-growing demographic becoming dependent on alcohol, which means we’re on our way to being a majority of participants of recovery programs. There’s no question that we need help. But we don’t need to give up our power.

AA was a miracle for those men who, until then, had almost nowhere to turn for help. It was radical in that it was free and it was fueled by an ethos of service. But it grew out of a fundamentalist Christian organization, the Oxford Group, and as a result, it is undergirded by the same belief system that asserts Eve grew from Adam’s rib.

The values baked into its founding continue to shape the way the organization works, and it still has too many echoes for my liking of the ways women are expected to blame themselves, follow instructions and fall into line in a patriarchal society.

I know a lot of women in recovery, in my real life and social media social circles, and through the recovery program I run. They aren’t drinking themselves numb because they are awash in oh-so-much power, or because of some pathological inability to follow rules or humble themselves, or because their outsize egos are running the show, as A.A.’s messaging would suggest. Quite the opposite: They’re drinking because they have so little power, because all they’ve ever done is follow the rules and humble themselves, because their egos have been crushed under a system that reduces their value to subservience, likability and silence.

When I entered recovery, I didn’t need to do a searching inventory to catalog all of my character defects. They had been played back to me my entire life by almost everyone around me. I was highly aware of the parts of me that were wrong, unruly and messy — those things that made me unlovable, or worse, unladylike. Ever since I could remember, I’d asked God to take those parts away. I drank to feel a sense of wholeness that had been conditioned out of me by society, to combat a powerlessness that was my birthright as a woman.

Submitting to the rules of A.A. was the last thing I needed. Instead, I tapped into a combination of existing approaches to recovery. I focused on developing self-trust, agency, compassion, self-nurturing and a reclamation of the agency I’d given up.

The antidote to my drinking problem was learning it was safe to trust myself, developing a sense of confidence and rejecting the humility women are conditioned to embrace. I also turned a critical eye on the society that helped make me sick in the first place.

In other words, the antidote to my drinking problem looked a lot like feminism.

To be sure, A.A. works for many people, including many women, and has saved millions of lives. I don’t want to see it dismantled or discourage anyone from trying it out — I simply want more people to recognize it’s not for all. There are many other evidenced-based options available now — from medically assisted treatments to cognitive behavioral therapy to the emerging use of psychedelics including psilocybin. For most of the people I know who have found success in recovery, it isn’t just one but a combination of treatments that ultimately works. 

Women are the fastest-growing demographic becoming dependent on alcohol, which means we’re on our way to being a majority of participants of recovery programs. There’s no question that we need help. But we don’t need to give up our power.

HInsdale Police Depart In Death Spiral With Only Three Cops

Update Dec 19

Update

Michell Sand and Gravel in Winchester had the Hinsdale contract for years per the town's road department. They were recently sold to a conglomerate. I called them today inquiring on what is asphalt prices today and the trends next year. The road department said they got special below market asphalt from Michell for years. The new owners so called said to the road department there is going to be a considerable price increase in the next year, like a contract price has already been locked in. The Hinsdale road department said  Mitchell Sand and Gravel would definitely get the new asphalt contract in 2020. This false high priced ghost winter asphalt is the sole bases for the "considerable" increase in asphalt prices in the next year's town budget gap. Today the Michell said they didn't sell asphalt in the winter. The plant is shutdown. I ask them what do you think the direction of prices in the spring? She says they don't disclose price trends or springtime prices. The prices of asphalt and components are too erratic in the winter. They absolutely don't make contracts in the winter and they never disclose prices until the plant startup. She says if they declare prices in the winter and the prices go up 200% in the spring, their loyal customers would rebel and they would ruin their reputation. They never disclose trends and prices of asphalt during the winter. Obviously Dracy is lying in the below statement.     

Darcy: "We learned last night [at Monday's board meeting] that the cost of asphalt is going to go up considerably,"

The Hinsdale Police department is investigating the town's asphalt contracts for fraud. Inflating asphalt prices to line somebody's pockets. The asphalt prices in our region are stable or declining based on my talks with the NHDOT and Keene's public works asphalt expert. Basically asphalt prices are keyed to petroleum prices. There is no justification for the "considerable rise" of asphalt prices in Hinsdale. I made the complaint to the police yesterday at their office and got it in their computer system. The young police women told me her investigation is beginning... 

***Hinsdale board struggles with budget

Posted Tuesday, December 17, 2019 8:33 pm

By Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer

HINSDALE, N.H. — Each year, the cost of goods and services increases and towns around the region struggle to take care of their communities while not overburdening taxpayers with ever-increasing taxes.

"We're always trying to present a budget that is providing the level of services that we need," said Mike Darcy, chairman of the Hinsdale Board of Selectmen. "But at the same time, we are trying to make it as economical as we can."

Every salient being knows this family budget model is grossly falsified. We all know there are really two components on a family budget: the income(taxes and property taxes) going into the budget and expenses going out of the budget. Why do these town officers never mention the property taxes feeding the  town budget. What is going on with our property taxes and home valuation?

Darcy noted that anyone who writes a household or business budget knows there are certain increases you can't control, such as health insurance and retirement plans, which you still have to pay. The money has to come from somewhere.

"We learned last night [at Monday's board meeting] that the cost of asphalt is going to go up considerably," Darcy said during a phone call with the Reformer on Tuesday. "And in the water and sewer departments, the cost of the chemicals we use to treat the water is going up. Those things are out of our hands. Even the cost of electricity is going up."

The Board of Selectmen asks its department heads to keep their budgets "as trim as possible" in the hopes of keeping any tax increases reasonable.

"It's very challenging," Darcy said.

On Monday night, the board heard from Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner, who said he has been able make $31,000 in cuts to his $1.4 million budget but expenses, going up $35,000, negated the cuts. The board had asked Faulkner to find an additional $20,000 in cuts in response. He said that's just not possible.

"We are down to bare bones," he said. Any further cuts, Faulkner said, would jeopardize the safety of officers and the public and might mean there is nothing in reserve for unforeseeable events like a cruiser that breaks down or a communications system that needs immediate repairs.

One suggestion that was made during the meeting was to cut two positions from the Police Department.

"Our numbers are not adding up for our residents," said board member Megan Kondrat, who pointed out the Police Department has budget lines for 10 officers but currently only has three and Faulkner on the payroll. Kondrat said it might be time to cut two positions if the town can't find enough officers to fill the open positions anyway.

"If we can't find a couple right now, I don't see us finding six officers in the next 18 months," she said.

"With that mentality," responded Faulkner, "we never will."

Faulkner said the major reason Hinsdale can't find officers to fill its open positions is because the pay is not commensurate with the level of work required. He said Hinsdale's officers have a higher call volume than other nearby towns and agencies that pay better.

"I and other officers have sat before the board many times and explained the need for better pay," said Faulkner, during a telephone call with the Reformer on Tuesday.

Faulkner said he understands the burden increased costs put on the town's taxpayers, but he asked if they are willing to sacrifice safety and service in exchange for keeping the tax rate down.

One option the town is looking at as a stopgap measure is to sign a 40-hour-a-week contract with the New Hampshire State Police.

Lt. Michael Kokoski, commander of NHSP Troop C in Keene, said the pay rate, depending on the rank of the troopers assigned to the contract, ranges between $50 and $90 an hour. Kokoski also noted that the contract wouldn't be signed unless Hinsdale can guarantee there will be an additional officer on duty while a trooper is assigned to the town. That could be a Hinsdale officer or it could be another trooper, but the call volume in Hinsdale demands dual coverage, he said.

Faulkner told the Reformer the town is also considering a contract with Chesterfield or the Cheshire County Sheriff, which would provide an officer at a little more than $80 an hour.

Whoever the town signs with, said Faulkner, that money would come out of the budget lines set aside for the six positions not currently filled in the department.

Another option that was discussed was to cut one position in the police department and use that money to give raises across the board.

Faulkner said that he wouldn't want to lose a position, but that's a viable alternative.

"That's the best option I have heard, but I guarantee the new chief will come in and say we need to go back to 10 positions," he said.

Faulkner recently tendered his resignation. His last day on the job is Jan. 6, when a contracted chief supplied by Municipal Resources Inc. will step in until the town finds a full-time replacement.

Faulkner also pointed out that he budgets about $50,000 for the student resource officer in the Hinsdale schools and that the schools pay about $25,000 on top of that. But that money goes back to the town's general budget, rather than to the police department. Faulkner said the town should send the money back to him so he can use it to pay his officers a little bit more.

"Townspeople don't realize the amount of crime and the call volume we have in this community," said Faulkner, who blamed much of that call volume on the town's proximity to Brattleboro and Massachusetts and the presence of the Super Walmart on Route 119.

"The Walmart alone keeps us super busy," he said. "We arrest people from around the region there. We're dealing with gang members, drug users and violent offenders on a regular basis. Hinsdale is not the same town it was 23 years ago when I first started here. This is a great community, but you need a police department to hold these issues in check."

Darcy told the Reformer that the board is responsible for working with department heads to set the budget. The members of the town's Budget Committee, which are elected positions, review the budget and offer their guidance back to the board, which eventually has to approve the budget before presenting it at annual Town Meeting in March for approval from town residents.

He said while he can see both sides of the discussion when it comes to the police budget, he told the Reformer town residents concerned about the process should attend board or budget meetings to inform themselves in advance of the town-wide vote.

"It's not black and white," he said. "There is no simple fix."

On Monday night, the board voted to table the discussion about cuts to the police department and continue it at the next meeting.

Dead New Construction Plants In USA

U.S. nuclear reactors that were canceled after construction began

Posted by SDD Contributor on December 16, 2019 at 7:57 am

U.S. nuclear reactors that were canceled after construction began

March 29 (Reuters) – If utilities in Georgia or South Carolina decide not to complete nuclear power reactors under construction by Westinghouse Electric Co following its bankruptcy, those units would join a long list of abandoned U.S. nuclear projects. Westinghouse, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, is building two reactors for Georgia Power and partners at the Vogtle site in Georgia and two for South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and its partner in South Carolina. The utilities, units of Southern Co (Georgia Power) and Scana Corp (SCE&G), have not canceled the reactor projects but said they were evaluating options. All 99 of the reactors now in service in the United States were started before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. At that time, utilities had construction permits from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build around 97 reactors, most of which were already under construction. The utilities only put in service 53 of those reactors. See below for a list of reactors that were never finished after obtaining a construction permit from the NRC, according to data from the NRC and Reuters: Plant Utility State Size (megawatt Cancel electric) Date Shearon Harris 2 Carolina Power & Light Co NC 900 1983 Shearon Harris 3 Carolina Power & Light Co NC 900 1981 Shearon Harris 4 Carolina Power & Light Co NC 900 1981 Zimmer 1 Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co OH 810 1984 Midland 1 Consumers Power Co MI 492 1986 Midland 2 Consumers Power Co MI 818 1986 Cherokee 1 Duke Power Co SC 1,280 1983 Cherokee 2 Duke Power Co SC 1,280 1982 Cherokee 3 Duke Power Co SC 1,280 1982 Washington Nuclear 1 Energy Northwest WA 1,266 1995 Washington Nuclear 3 Energy Northwest WA 1,242 1995 Washington Nuclear 4 Energy Northwest WA 1,218 1982 Washington Nuclear 5 Energy Northwest WA 1,242 1982 Grand Gulf 2 Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc MS 1,250 1990 Vogtle 3 Georgia Power Co GA 1,113 1974 Vogtle 4 Georgia Power Co GA 1,113 1974 River Bend 2 Gulf States Utilities Co LA 934 1984 Clinton 2 Illinois Power Co IL 933 1983 Forked River 1 Jersey Central Power & Light Co NJ 1,070 1980 Jamesport 1 Long Island Lighting Co NY 1,150 1980 Jamesport 2 Long Island Lighting Co NY 1,150 1980 * Shoreham Long Island Lighting Co NY 820 1989 Bailly 1 Northern Indiana Public Service Co IN 645 1981 Tyrone 2 Northern States Power Co WI 1,150 1974 Seabrook 2 Public Service Co of New Hampshire NH 1,198 1988 Hope Creek 2 Public Service Electric & Gas Co DE 1,067 1981 Marble Hill 1 Public Service of Indiana IN 1,130 1985 Marble Hill 2 Public Service of Indiana IN 1,130 1985 Sterling Rochester Gas & Electric Corp NY 1,150 1980 Bellefonte 1 Tennessee Valley Authority AL 1,235 1988 Bellefonte 2 Tennessee Valley Authority AL 1,235 1988 Hartsville A1 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,233 1984 Hartsville A2 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,233 1984 Hartsville B1 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,233 1982 Hartsville B2 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,233 1982 Phipps Bend 1 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,220 1982 Phipps Bend 2 Tennessee Valley Authority TN 1,220 1982 Yellow Creek 1 Tennessee Valley Authority MS 1,285 1984 Yellow Creek 2 Tennessee Valley Authority MS 1,285 1984 Callaway 2 Union Electric Co MD 1,150 1981 North Anna 3 Virginia Electric & Power Co VA 907 1982 North Anna 4 Virginia Electric & Power Co VA 907 1980 Surry 3 Virginia Electric & Power Co VA 882 1977 Surry 4 Virginia Electric & Power Co VA 882 1977 * Long Island Lighting Co, or LILCO, finished the Shoreham reactor but was not able to operate it commercially due to opposition in New York. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino)

Big Troubles With The NH's Prosecutors and NH Cities and Towns Police Chiefs

Merrimack Country surrounds Concord. To me this looks like ideology and budget cuts are weakening the prosecutors office. Does the Manadnock office have diarrhea of the prosecutor's employees much like the Hinsdale police department. You got the heroin and gangland crisis ravishing The NH Department of Safety budgets.  

Merrimack County police chiefs, top prosecutor look to improve relations in 2020

People arrive for the tour of the new Merrimack County Courthouse in back of the former building off of Court Street on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. GEOFF FORESTER

Robin Davis is the Democratic nominee for Merrimack County Attorney

By ALYSSA DANDREA
Monitor staff

Published: 12/14/2019 9:23:42 PM

After a rocky 2019, Merrimack County’s police chiefs and the region’s top prosecutor agree that more frequent and constructive conversations between them will be an essential step toward improved relations in the year ahead.

While members of the local chiefs association have frequently invited prior Merrimack County attorneys to join them at their meetings, this month marked the first time Robin Davis – who was elected county attorney in November 2018 – was in attendance. Davis said in a recent interview that she requested to meet with the police chiefs as a group after Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood and Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein shared with the Monitor their concerns about her leadership style and the office’s prosecution of certain cases, particularly those involving crimes of sexual and domestic violence.

“We don’t have the luxury of not communicating or disliking each other if we are going to do a good job for the community,” Davis said.

“Whenever someone poses that there has been a breakdown in communication by myself or by my office, I do try to reach out to them,” she added.

While certain chiefs, to include Pembroke Police Chief Dwayne Gilman, say they’ve had success in meeting one-on-one with Davis when prosecutorial concerns arise, others say communication has been trying.

The Monitor requested to attend the most recent Merrimack County chiefs’ meeting on Dec. 4 but that request was denied. However, Davis, Osgood and Goldstein each agreed to phone interviews afterward to discuss the issues raised at the meeting and their efforts to work toward solutions in the new year.

Specifically, all agreed that more regular chiefs’ meetings that include Davis as well as one-on-one meetings with her are a natural first step. Davis has also asked each police department to have a designated liaison – whether a detective, the chief or another officer – to the county attorney’s office to establish a point of contact for prosecutors.

“I think it was a constructive starter meeting,” Osgood said. “We talked quite a bit about the chiefs wanting to be brought into the loop about plea and sentencing issues.”

The Dec. 4 chiefs’ meeting took place on the heels of a controversial plea resolution in a sexual assault case in Pembroke. Gilman said the county attorney’s office did not notify him and his detectives about a plea resolution before the defendant, Griffin Furlotte, was scheduled to appear in court and enter guilty pleas to reduced charges. Advocates also said the office did not confer with victims, one of whom told the Monitor that she was never directly asked what she believed Furlotte should receive for a sentence.

The county attorney’s office has since acknowledged the miscommunication with the Pembroke Police Department and said it plans to consult with the chief directly in future cases. However, Davis, victim advocate Jessica Clarke and prosecutor Carley Ahern said in a recent interview that they believe they had effectively communicated with the victims throughout the case and that the Monitor’s prior reporting was inaccurate.

Advocates and the victim said they stand by their statements that the office violated the Victims Bill of Rights, which requires consultation with victims about potential plea agreements and not just notification of a resolution.

Davis, Clarke and Ahern said they sat down with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to explain their handling of the case before the final plea deal that included a felony conviction for Furlotte was ultimately accepted by a judge. Davis said she has also conferred with the attorney general’s office about how to approach and strengthen “victim-witness relations,” and noted she will be following through on several recommendations.

Goldstein, who serves as vice president of the county chiefs’ association, said he and a representative of Concord police previously met with the attorney general’s office earlier this year to discuss their concerns about Davis’s leadership and her approach to case resolution. Several chiefs have questioned her decision to disband the office’s specialized sexual assault unit in favor of distributing cases among assistant prosecutors. Goldstein also referred to repeat instances of the office negotiating plea resolutions that don’t incorporate police departments’ wishes.

In response, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald recommended the county’s chiefs meet with Davis in an effort to prevent any disagreements from escalating to the point that the attorney general’s office has to step in, as recently happened in Hillsborough County, Goldstein said.

While Goldstein could not attend the Dec. 4 county chiefs’ meeting with Davis due to a scheduling conflict, they are scheduled to meet one-on-one.

“I did have my detective sergeant and prosecutor, who used to work with Robin, there to represent me and the department,” Goldstein said. “I heard not a lot of discussion was had, and so I’m not sure how productive that meeting was.”

“We’re going to keep trying because we have the public welfare at heart,” he added.

The county chiefs have not met regularly in 2019 but Goldstein said that will change in 2020, and that Davis is always welcome to attend.

While the Dec. 4 meeting was a start, Davis was also a bit surprised by the lack of conversation. She said she felt individual chiefs were reluctant to speak up because they didn’t want to appear as the sole voice of the association.

Osgood said Davis had asked to meet one-on-one before the chiefs’ meeting but that he felt doing so was inappropriate because he didn’t want to speak for the group. However, Davis said she hopes that in the future the chiefs will feel comfortable speaking both as department heads with agency-specific concerns and as members of the association.

Both the county chiefs and Davis agreed they’ll always have philosophical differences but that those differences aren’t an excuse not to communicate.

“I do try to look at sentencing very broadly,” Davis said. “The police chiefs favor incarceration in the first instance and then some type of rehabilitative services. There are cases where incarceration is the first element of sentencing but I don’t think that’s always the case.”

Statewide, bail reform that aims to release defendants pretrial unless they pose a clear danger to the community remains a contested issue. In Merrimack County specifically, Davis said more defendants have failed to appear for scheduled court hearings after being released on personal recognizance. She said she understands that officers are increasingly frustrated when they’re arresting the same people again and again.

Although chiefs may have personal disagreements or issues with her, Davis said she doesn’t want to see that affect the work of her assistant county attorneys, many of whom were there before she arrived.

“I have not set any additional policies or protocols for the prosecutors. I don’t tell them how to prosecute their cases,” Davis said. “The impressions that the chiefs and the victim advocates are leaving is that there has been some real change in my office and that’s not true.”

Chiefs have previously pointed to the significant staff turnover at the county attorney’s office since Davis took over. Davis also eliminated two part-time positions held by career attorneys.

This past summer, the office’s former sexual assault investigator Jennifer Adams filed a lawsuit against Davis and the county alleging wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and intentional interference of a contractual relationship. She has accused Davis of creating a hostile work environment.

Attorneys for the county have said that Davis acted within the scope of her employment and that her conduct was not intentionally reckless or ill-intentioned. They also contend that many of the allegations resulted from disagreements over policy and personnel decisions, which are not grounds for legal action.

The civil case is still pending.