InDepthNH.org (http://indepthnh.org/category/dishonest-police/page/2/)
Laurie List’s Legacy: They are called Exculpatory Evidence Schedules now, but InDepthNH.org continues its investigative reporting on the secret list that contains the names of law enforcement officers in New Hampshire who have a history of dishonesty, excessive force or mental instability. Catch up on our reporting here.
Rochester Police Officer John Gantert — who is out $20,000 from his unsuccessful attempt to remove his name from the secret “Laurie” list of potentially dishonest cops — is upset that legislation that would have protected law enforcement is now dead in the water.
Editor’s note: This story by Nancy West was sponsored by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and first published by VTDigger on July 19. West founded the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which launched its news website InDepthNH.org on Sept. 1.
Maybe Debra Jean Milke masterminded the murder of her tow-haired son Christopher in Phoenix just befyore Christmas 1989 to collect the 4-year-old’s $5,000 life insurance policy.
Or maybe – as Milke has insisted all along – she was just the innocent victim of a corrupt cop with a proven pattern of lying who was out to win a conviction.
John Gantert, the Rochester police officer who fought for five years to have his name removed from a “Laurie” list of potentially dishonest officers, has lost his last appeal – this one to the state Supreme Court.
Convicted murderer Eduardo Lopez Jr. says a judge was wrong last month to rule that evidence of a police detective’s dishonesty decades ago wouldn’t have affected the 1993 guilty verdict against him.
A judge ruled against convicted murderer Eduardo Lopez’ bid for a new trial saying undisclosed evidence of a lie told decades ago by then-Nashua Police Detective John Seusing was “inconsequential” in proving Lopez’ guilt in 1993. Seusing went on to become the chief of the Nashua Police Department and retired in January.
Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, has filed confidential proposed legislation that provides police with a process to appeal placement on secret lists designating dishonest officers.
Members of the Commission on the Use of Police Personnel Files and two people who testified before it have differing views about how to be fair to police and to defendants.
The names of an estimated 150 sworn law enforcement officers are maintained on a hodgepodge of “Laurie” lists kept by the state’s 10 county attorneys in New Hampshire.
It appears many of the officers no longer work in law enforcement in the county that lists their name, but it is impossible to be sure because the names are redacted and each county attorney reports their numbers in different formats. (see lists from all 10 counties below.)
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CONCORD — It didn’t take long for John Gantert’s life to fall apart four years ago when he was fired from the Rochester Police Department over a report he filled out that landed him on the hated “Laurie” list.
Gantert, now 33, was quickly evicted from Wyandotte Falls housing because his living arrangement there hinged on him working as community police officer. His girlfriend left him.
Gantert was suddenly alone and unemployed after six years on the job.
“I lost everything within 30 days,” Gantert told members of a commission studying Laurie issues on Wednesday. “It was unreal.”
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