By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Joseph Lascaze, a member of the Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency disclosed to the public for the first time on Friday his criminal past, including a 2005 conviction for armed robbery.
“My criminal background is not something I’m proud of at all,” Lascaze said during Friday’s remote public meeting of the Commission. “I have made several poor choices in my life including committing an armed robbery as a teenager.”
Lascaze was convicted at age 19 for brandishing a sawed-off shotgun while leading a botched 2005 home invasion robbery in Manchester, according to records obtained by InDepthNH.org.
Today, Lascaze is a community organizer for ACLU-NH and was picked by Gov. Chris Sununu to serve on the Commission, which is charged with developing reforms to the way police work in the Granite State.
“I have taken ownership of my actions and I have served my time,” Lascaze said during Friday’s Commission meeting.
Lascaze did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Soon after InDepth.org reached out, several Lascaze supporters reached out to InDepthNH.org, some trying to dissuade the nonprofit news outlet from reporting the story.
His attorney, Donna Brown, said Lascaze turned his life around after his conviction, even starting a charity behind bars that had inmates donate canteen money to children at St. Jude’s Hospital.
“He really turned things around from when he was a juvenile,” Brown said.
When Sununu formed the Commission in June, Lascaze was named as a representative for the ACLU-NH. Contacted Thursday, Sununu’s office stated Lascaze’s appointment was ACLU’s decision.
“The ACLU-NH has a designated spot on the New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency, and chose Mr. Lascaze to serve as their representative. We would refer you to the ACLU for future questions regarding Mr. Lascaze’s appointment,” Sununu’s office said in a statement.
ACLU-NH Executive Director Devon Chaffee provided a statement Friday supporting Lascaze’s work and implying that reporting on Lascaze’s past is part of the institutional racism that needs to be overcome.
“At such a critical time in our state and nation’s history, Granite Staters are lucky to have Joseph as a leader that works bravely and tirelessly to enact meaningful policy reforms, whether it’s with the legislature, through the Governor’s policing commission, or partnering with other stakeholders, including law enforcement,” Chaffee said in the statement. “We cannot end our over-reliance on incarceration or end the systemic racism that exists in New Hampshire without leaders and advocates like Joseph, who amplify the voices and experience of those directly impacted by the criminal legal system. Too often those most impacted by racism and the criminal legal system are the same people excluded from conversations and efforts to end racism and reform that system.”
No one from the ACLU-NH made themselves available to answer on-the-record questions.
Lascaze was praised by all the members of the Commission after he made his statement on Friday. Deputy Attorney General Jane Young, who chairs the commission, said that she supports Lascaze’s efforts to make a positive contribution.
“People make mistakes, it’s not the mistake you make, it’s how you move on from mistakes,” Young said.
In his work as a community organizer, Lascaze has made no secret that he spent time in prison, and that experience has fueled his desire to see criminal justice reform. His biographical page on the ACLU’s website states:
“His personal experience with the criminal justice system in New Hampshire motivated him to seek change and reform in the rehabilitative process that incarcerated people undergo.”
While Lascaze spoke to Commission members about his 2005 convictions, up until Friday, he had not disclosed details of his past to the public. He told the Commission he was prompted to make the disclosure after he was contacted by InDepthNH.org. Lascaze has yet to respond to InDepthNH.org directly.
The court records on the case in the Hillsborough North Superior Court do not include an affidavit detailing the allegations of the crime, and the affidavit on file in the lower district court has since been destroyed, according to court sources.
According to a Manchester Police report on the investigation obtained by InDepthNH.org, Lascaze was one of three men who broke into the home of Thomas Katsiantonis in the early morning hours of Oct. 21, 2005.
Katsiantonis, a former state representative and city alderman, was then the owner of Grand Slam Pizza. According to the police reports, Lascaze and his then juvenile accomplices heard Katsiantonis kept a million dollars in cash in a safe in his house.
Katsiantonis could not be reached for comment. He was convicted in 2018 on charges of tax evasion, theft, and falsifying evidence, and sentenced to one and a half to three years in state prison. Katsiantonis was accused of underreporting his rooms and meals taxes, keeping more than $440,000 over the course of five years. He is no longer the owner of Grand Slam Pizza.
On the morning of the robbery, Katsiantonis came home around 3 a.m. and went to his basement lounge to watch television, according to the statement he made to police. There he found Lascaze sitting on the sofa and holding a sawed-off shotgun. The two other suspects were also on the sofa, according to the report.
“Tom, give me your money. You have a wife and kid upstairs and you don’t want to get hurt,” Lascaze reportedly said to Katsiantonis while holding the gun.
Katsiantonis told police he was afraid he was going to get shot, and he told the suspects that he had money upstairs. Katsiantonis told police Lascaze’s eyes became cold so he moved toward him and grabbed the gun. In the ensuing struggle, one of the juvenile suspects hit Katsiantonis with a bottle of liquor, and the shotgun went off, according to the report.
No one was injured by the shotgun blast and at this point all three suspects fled Katsiantonis’s home without any money.
At the time of the Katsiantonis robbery, Lascaze had a pending case out of Bedford involving the theft of firearms during a burglary, according to the police report. The case broke for investigators when one of the juvenile suspects agreed to talk on the condition he and the other juvenile would not be tried as adults, according to the police report.
In April of 2005, Lascaze pleaded guilty to felonies connected to the Katsiantonis home invasion and the Bedford burglary. He was sentenced to seven and a half to 15 years for the home invasion and another five to 10 years suspended for the burglary.
During the sentencing hearing, Soyla Katsiantonis, Thomas Katsiantonis’s wife, testified she no longer felt safe in the home after the home invasion and had to move, according to a Union Leader article.
The Commission sent Sununu a set of recommendations on changes to police training to include topics like de-escalation and racial bias training. Sununu has said he will seek to adopt the first set of recommendations.
The Commission is now working on changes to the disciplinary process for police, and changes to the way police officers interact with the community. Those reports are expected by the end of August.