By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
LANCASTER – Former State Senator Jeffrey R. Woodburn of Dalton was sentenced to 30 days in jail for kicking the door of his former fiancee’s house five years ago, but the imposition of the sentence was stayed while his attorney appeals to the state Supreme Court.
Coos County Superior Court Judge Peter H. Bornstein on Thursday rejected motions by the defense asking for charges to be separated in a new trial arguing Woodburn’s prior attorney should have separated out some of the nine misdemeanor charges that went before a jury rather than try them all together.
He also rejected a motion by Woodburn’s new attorney, Mark Sisti of Chichester, to suspend the imposed 30-day sentence.
The 58-year-old former State Senator, a Democrat from the First District who was elected in 2012, was the Senate Minority Leader and the most influential Coos County elected official until 2018.
That year, he was arrested on simple assault, domestic violence, criminal mischief, and criminal trespass charges related to a former relationship. In all there were nine misdemeanor charges.
Woodburn ran for re-election and was defeated by Republican David Starr in the 2018 general election.
Woodburn declined comment after the hearing, but in the past has said he has moved on but wants the truth to come out.
In May 2021, a Coos County jury acquitted Woodburn of three counts of simple assault, one count of domestic violence and one count of criminal trespass but convicted him of one count of simple assault and two counts of criminal mischief.
Woodburn admitted to the two charges of kicking a dryer door in August 2017 and kicking the door of his former fiancee Emily Jacobs in December of that year.
Bornstein sentenced him to 12 months in the House of Correction for the first offense with all time suspended but did sentence him to 12 months with all but 30 days suspended for the second, which he considered more serious because it was the door of a home, not an appliance.
In March, the state Supreme Court overturned his assault and domestic violence convictions, and remanded the case back to Bornstein on the grounds that he did not allow a self-defense argument.
Sisti asked Bornstein to separate out the charges for a new trial including the property crimes, arguing that the defense attorney at the time, Donna Brown should not have proceeded with all the charges in one trial, that it would prejudice the jury and that they occurred at different times.
Sisti called Woodburn to the stand who said Brown never raised the issue of separating the cases.
Assistant Attorney General Myles Matteson opposed Sisti’s motion and successfully argued that the court would likely have decided to try the charges on the same day at the same time.
If Bornstein had agreed with the ineffective counsel argument, he could have set a new trial on the two property crimes, which would be separate from the others.
Matteson did not take a position on the stay and continuation of bail for Woodburn until the state Supreme Court could consider Sisti’s appeal.
After the hearing, Sisti said, “We’re looking forward to continuing this litigation for as long as it takes.”
The proceedings were made remotely available by video broadcast with the victim and WMUR and NHPR. InDepthNH.org was told that the hearing would not be available to the press remotely.
A court spokesman said: “The court said that when the hearing started the State asked if the victim could participate via WebEx, which was granted without objection. When they turned on the WebEx, the outlets you mentioned were already there. They were not notified that it would be on WebEx, but appeared to have joined in the hopes it would be available.”