Read full list here: https://indepthnh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ees-list-4july2023.pdf
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
No new names of police officers with credibility issues were added to the July quarterly release of the state’s Exculpatory Evidence Schedule.
New Hampshire’s Department of Justice is required to update and make public the EES, or Laurie List, every quarter as part of a law enacted to avoid lawsuits over the secret list of problematic cops.
So far, 195 police officers have been publicly named as being on the list, though many more continue to have their identities protected by the state.
The EES release this week does not change the public information from the April release, though more officers have been added to the list on the side of the ledger not yet shown. According to the July report, there are 74 police officers with cases in court fighting their placements on the EES. Those cases are filed under seal, meaning the public does not know anything about them.
There’s another 26 officers who have been added to the temporary EES pending the outcome of grievance dispute resolutions. Of those 26, three have already filed lawsuits over their placement. None of these 26 officers are being named at this time.
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 requires the release of some 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.
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 workings of the EES and too many names still kept confidential.
Should someone convicted of a crime find out later that a police officer who testified against him or her had been disciplined for dishonesty or excessive force and that was never disclosed, they could petition the court for a new trial.
There is no mechanism in New Hampshire for people in prison to be notified by prosecutors if an officer in their case should have been disclosed to them, but wasn’t.