By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Gov. Chris Sununu and Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington expressed concern Wednesday that it took Massachusetts officials four years to send a completed autopsy report in 2021 to New Hampshire showing a 4-month-old Nashua child was murdered.
Attorney General John Formella said it would take no more than a month or two if the autopsy had been performed in New Hampshire.
Sununu said he would also wait to see what Formella’s review of a report that Republican Congressional candidate Matt Mowers may have voted twice in the same election in 2016 and indicated he is moving on from a weekend comedy gig in Washington that raised a number of laughs and some eyebrows.
Formella said Massachusetts officials have been getting better at giving New Hampshire officials information on a more timely basis than a case which he said has now surfaced to the public because of matters he could not go into detail about.
Formella and Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke announced Tuesday that information is available regarding a death that occurred in February 2017.
He said on Feb. 16 of that year, Luna L. Champagne (age approx. 4 months), was taken from her parents’ home at 79 Elm Street, Apartment #2, in Nashua to a local hospital in medical distress. She was later transported to a hospital in Massachusetts and died on February 19, 2017.
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy on Feb. 23, 2017. The complete autopsy report was received in New Hampshire in 2021, which revealed that Luna’s cause of death was traumatic head injuries, and her manner of death is homicide.
The exact circumstances surrounding Luna Champagne’s death remain under investigation and there have been no charges brought in the case. The Nashua police are seeking the public’s assistance with this investigation. Anyone with information about Luna’s death or who interacted with her when she was alive is asked to call the Nashua Police Crimeline at (603) 589-1665.
Warmington, a Concord Democrat, asked how does the state of New Hampshire know whether or not there are similar cases.
“I think that the concern that I have is New Hampshire needs to be following up with Massachusetts and really getting after them to get those reports because five years is too long, way too long for a murder case…to be uninvestigated. The people involved in this deserve justice,” Warmington said.
Sununu echoed those concerns saying that the “years and years of delay out of Massachusetts is unfortunate. I think we have been talking with them and working with them to speed their system up but there is really nothing we can do.”
MATT MOWERS
Sununu said he would wait to hear the Attorney General’s review of a voting situation in which the Associated Press reported this week that Matt Mowers voted in New Hampshire in 2016 during the primary and then went to New Jersey and voted in June.
Mowers has said that nothing was done incorrectly. The governor is taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I know that the Attorney General is looking into it so I probably will wait to see what potentially comes of that. I don’t know all the details and I think that is what they are looking into,” Sununu said.
Asked if he thought he might endorse a Republican candidate to face incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, he said he would wait to see who files.
Other candidates in the Republican primary who have filed for the primary have criticized Mowers for his actions and at least one has called for him to halt his campaign.
Voting integrity has become a Republican election issue.
“My sense is there are laws against it,” he said of voting in the same election twice.” I think there are federal laws that prevent it,” Sununu said.
GRIDIRON CLUB EVENT
Asked if he was running for reelection for governor of New Hampshire or perhaps looking toward a run for President of the United States by appearing at the Gridiron Club this past weekend, where he was reported to have said former President Donald Trump is “crazy,” the governor said he was not attending out of political ambition.
“I was invited down to be the Republican keynote speaker at a comedy event and it went very well,” he said. “The funniest politician in Washington is like being the finest surfer in Kansas.”
COVID-19 REPORT
The governor said the state continues to monitor the pandemic and is looking to source drugs to fight the virus. He said the statistics will now likely go from a daily report to a weekly data release.
“We constantly monitor and manage our PPE supply, we constantly monitor the number of in-home tests we have…what is going on in the hospitals, workforce…because if that surge comes that is going to be a big factor in the level of care that can be provided,” Sununu told reporters in his office following the Executive Council meeting Wednesday.
Even though we are not doing the weekly press conferences, “we can pivot, and refresh our dashboard,” he said. The next piece is working with Washington on the availability of some of the antiviral drugs likely in the June and July timeframe, he said.
“I think the goal is if you test positive you can be handed a prescription five-day supply of the antivirals then and there,” he said. “We have some, we definitely have some.”
But those doses right now are going to the highest priority cases where the most vulnerable for an adverse outcome are given what the state now has.
He said another big piece is monitoring variants overseas and what effects they have.
“We are right on top of it,” he said. “The thing is we have a very robust system that can pivot,” if the need arises.
BAIL REFORM
Sununu said he would like to see bail reform move forward piecemeal if necessary but making steps forward toward public safety.
“The demand is very, very real,” he said. What he said he is hearing from all sides is there is a need for reform.
‘PROVISIONAL’ BALLOT
Sununu said he was concerned about Republican-backed legislation that might mean a delay in results in elections by separating out same-day voters without documentation.
He said the state prides itself on results that everyone can count on and believe in and that the bill that is now being considered might be of considerable concern for him to sign. He did not say he would veto.
“Our system isn’t fundamentally broken,” he said.
Sununu noted the provisions being considered by the legislature would be contrary to the motor-voter deal in 1993 on same-day registration that the state accepted.