By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
TROY — State Police found no crimes during the investigation into “threats” that flooded town offices last year after Police Chief David Ellis was discovered to have attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally in Washington D.C., according to documents obtained via a right-to-know request.
New Hampshire State Police Lt. Michael Kokoski reviewed emails and voicemail messages and found no crimes.
“I reviewed all of the materials in question and there was nothing of a criminal nature found,” Kokoski wrote in his report.
Town offices were shut down for several days in January after news of Ellis’ presence in Washington D.C. broke and angry calls and emails came in. Ellis was on hand for the rally led by then-President Donald Trump, but he reportedly did not take part in the subsequent riot at the United State Capitol building where the 2020 election results were being ratified by Congress.
Ellis told Kokoski there was even an alleged threat from Antifa, an amorphous antifascist organization that reportedly engages in violent behavior across the country. No evidence of that threat could be found.
“(Ellis) also stated that the PD was informed by a citizen that they had seen a message on social media that appeared to be associated with Antifa and mentioned threats of violence to the police department. The reporting party could not find the original post for review,” Kokoski said.
The emails and calls that were received by the police department and town offices were obscene, but not criminal, according to Kokoski. One of the concerning emails sent to the town was full of foul language, but no explicit threats:
“YOU SHIT-HOLE REPUBLICANS ARE A DISGRACE TO OUR COUNTRY.
YOU ARE SO STUPID, YOU WERE PLAYED BY A RUSSIAN TRAITOR; THE RAPIST FROM NYC WITH A COMMUNIST-BORN PORN-STAR MAIL-ORDER BRIDE.
GRAB EM BY THE PUSSY YOU DUMB-(Expletive) NH TRUMPERS.”
One of the concerning voicemails was left by an unidentified man from Barnstead, who stated: “We hang people in the United States for treason.”
Nothing in the messages rose to the level of a crime, according to Kokoski’s report.
Kokoski said this week he was called to investigate the threats, rather than leaving the task to Ellis, in order to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
“(G)iven that the town/PD appeared to be the subject of the ‘threats,’ and given that the impetus for all the messages in questions was the Chief’s presence in D.C., it seemed a conflict of interest to have Troy PD handle the inquiry, thus the Chief asked us to review the material,” Kokosi wrote in an email response to questions.
Ellis did not respond to a request for comment.
State Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, was stripped of her committee assignment by Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard because of her social media post shortly after the Jan. 6 riot calling on New Hampshire police to denounce the Troy police chief for attending the pro-Trump rally.
Rung questioned why she was singled out for exercising her right to free speech when other Republican House members went unpunished for racial and anti-Semitic social media postings.
In a letter to House Minority Leader Renny Cushing, D-Hampton at the time, Packard accused Rung of acting “beneath the dignity of the House” and committing a “dangerous violation” of the tenet for how things get done in the House of Representatives by calling out Ellis and naming him in a Twitter post.
Packard also accused her of contributing to the town of Troy being forced to shut down town temporarily because of threats of violence, which she called “ridiculous.”
“Considering that Rep. Rung’s actions may have contributed to the town offices in Troy shutting down,” Packard wrote, “I am removing her from her committee assignments pending a bipartisan solution to this problem.”
Ellis is quoted in New York Magazine coverage of the mob violence as being one of the few attendees who decried the subsequent mob action, which was instigated by Trump. Ellis told the magazine that he was troubled by the violence against the police at the Capitol, and that it is not representative of the pro-Trump movement.
“There’s a lot of Trump supporters that are awesome people,” he told New York Magazine. “Like me.”
Evidence being gathered by the Congressional Jan. 6 Committee indicated the rally-turned-riot was part of a plot to illegally overturn the election of President Joe Biden. Several people were killed during, or died as a result of the riot, including police officers.
Ellis was found to have violated state law last year by displaying President Donald Trump campaign signs in his office. Cheshire County Attorney Chris McLaughlin contacted Ellis in the fall of 2020 after he learned about the signs. McLaughlin told Ellis to remove the signs as they violate state law that prohibits public employees from using public property for electioneering.
