By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The latest public version of the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, also known as the Laurie List, includes former Winchester Police Chief Mike Tollett, who was dismissed by the town in 2021.
The latest quarterly compliance report by Attorney John Formella is here.
Tollett, who has since left the state to pursue a security career at Walt Disney World, was placed on the list of cops with credibility issues in 2018, the same year he became chief. The reason for Tollett’s inclusion is an excessive force incident. No other information about the incident was available on Thursday.
Lindseigh Picard, the current chair of Winchester’s select board, did not respond to a request for comment.
The list is maintained by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Under a law passed in 2021, the names of the officers on the list are now a matter of public records after decades of official secrecy. Not all of the officers on the list are currently public, however.
Officers whose names have been placed on the list have the right to appeal before their names are released. Tollett fought his name becoming public in court, according to information on Thursday’s release.
Tollett is one of several new names made public Thursday. Kevin Covey was placed on the list in 2010 by the Manchester Police Department. According to state records, Covey was investigated by the department for allegedly lying about his use of a personal day. His placement lists “truthfulness” as the reason.
Brandon Cannata, a former Hudson police officer, was placed on the list in 2007 for criminal conduct. He was charged that year in Massachusetts for an off-duty drunk driving incident that left a woman with serious injuries.
Kevin Maxwell, a former police officer for the towns of Milford and Lyndeborough, was placed on the list in 2007 for reasons listed as “unknown.” According to media reports, Maxwell clashed with Lyndeborough’s board of selectmen in 2011. The board has imposed a three-day suspension on Maxwell over what they claimed was “unprofessional conduct” during a board meeting.
Joseph Voveris, another Manchester police officer, was placed on the list in 2011, again for truthfulness. The details of that placement are not known.
According to the Attorney General’s quarterly report released Thursday, there are currently 254 officers on the list, and the names of 194 of those officers have been made public. There are 58 pending lawsuits brought by officers seeking to keep their names from becoming public.
The Laurie List, kept secret for decades, is supposed to contain the names of officers with sustained discipline for dishonesty or excessive force in their confidential personnel files that could impact their truthfulness while testifying at trial. The list is meant to alert prosecutors in cases that should be disclosed to criminal defendants who are constitutionally guaranteed all evidence that is favorable to them. That could include the names of police with credibility problems who are going to testify against them.
The current law which releases some of the names is the result of a compromise between the attorney general and ACLU-NH and five newspapers that sued in a public records lawsuit to have all the names on the list made public. The lead plaintiff in the case, the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, did not accept the deal and continues to pursue its case. The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which publishes InDepthNH.org, maintains that the compromise still leaves New Hampshire residents in the dark about the working of the EES.
