By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
When Claremont Police Officer Jon Stone was fired in 2006, before his union fought and altered his official exit, the Police Standards and Training Council was informed about Stone’s alleged rape and murder threats, and his inappropriate relationship with a teen girl.
But the state agency that licenses police officers passed on holding Stone to account, according to the records obtained by InDepthNH.org.
“They had everything, what they chose to do with it is their decision,” former Claremont Police Chief Alex Scott said.
Stone fought for more than three and a half years to keep his personnel records sealed after this reporter filed a right-to-know request in 2020. Part of Stone’s ultimately unsuccessful legal argument is that the records should have been destroyed after the Claremont Police Union negotiated an exit for the troubled officer that kept his alleged misdeeds quiet.
Stone, now a Republican state Representative, allegedly threatened to kill Scott, rape Scott’s wife and children, and go on a shooting spree inside the Claremont Police station. He also allegedly made threats against Captain Mark Chase, but details on those threats have been redacted.
The impetus for Stone’s unhinged and violent rhetoric was the internal investigation into his inappropriate relationship with a teen girl, according to the internal affairs reports.
Stone was fired from the department in March of 2006, soon after the threat investigation wrapped, and Scott filed paperwork with the Police Standards and Training Council (PSTC,) a Form B, informing the agency of the termination as required under New Hampshire law. The Form B does not provide details, but the agency asked Scott for more information. Scott sent PSTC copies of the internal affairs reports.
“I believe you will agree the rule seems to implicate Rule 402.02 (a) 5,” Scott wrote in May of 2006 when he sent the reports.
That administrative rule requires the Council to revoke a police officer’s certification on the grounds the officer lacks moral character, even if a settlement between the officer and his department had been negotiated. But the Council never acted on the reports, and Stone was eventually allowed to surrender his certification.
Stone appealed his termination through his union, and after mediation came to an agreement to leave the department. At the time, the Claremont Police Union representative was Officer Andrew O’Hearne. Like Stone, O’Hearne entered politics after leaving the department, winning elected office to the City Council and the House of Representatives as a Democrat.
Scott told InDepthNH.org on Monday that Stone’s internal affairs reports were sent to Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway as well, but Stone was never prosecuted. Hathaway was not available for comment on Monday.
Scott declined to answer questions about Stone’s threats to him and his family.
Stone’s appeal stretched out through 2006 and into 2007, when Scott again contacted the Council and informed it of the agreement.
“As a result, the City has agreed to, in effect, turn back the clock and allow Stone to resign prior to any findings being entered by the City with respect to (the) internal affairs investigations,” Scott wrote in May of 2007.
Scott’s 2007 letter to the Council came with a new Form B noting Stone left his job as a result of a negotiated settlement, replacing the 2006 Form B. Scott asked the Council to disregard the internal affairs reports as part of the union agreement.
On Monday, House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm, D-Manchester, called for Stone being removed from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
“Revelations regarding Representative Jon Stone’s on-the-job behavior as a police officer are beyond disturbing,” Wilhelm said.
“At minimum, Representative Stone must be immediately removed from the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. Whether this behavior occurred last week, last year, or last decade, it is clearly beyond the pale for an elected official.”
Wilhelm said he expressed his opinion to Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard. “I sincerely hope he takes immediate action to address this black eye on the New Hampshire House of Representatives,” Wilhelm said.
Current PSTC Executive Director John Scippa, who took over the agency in 2020, said a case like Stone’s could not happen today, union or no union.
“If there’s allegations (of officer misconduct) that need to be reported, they would go before us at the Conduct Review Committee,” Scippa said.
Under the law, which was changed in 2022, all allegations of officer misconduct go to the Conduct Review Committee for review. If the Committee, made up of three civilian members and four law enforcement members, finds the allegations credible the case is then sent to the full Council for a public hearing. So far, four cases out of about 120 have been deemed credible and referred from the Committee to the full Council. Though, Scippa said the Council has yet to schedule those hearings.
Stone’s ability to walk away from the allegations shows more needs to be done to hold bad cops to account, according to Amanda Grady Sexton with the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
“Allegations of domestic violence, sexual assault, inappropriate relationships, child abuse, or threats of violence by a member of law enforcement must be fully investigated by an independent investigator. If there is evidence that a crime has been committed, the officer should be prosecuted just like anyone without a badge would be. We shouldn’t have situations where serious crimes are alleged, and the officer is allowed to negotiate a resignation in exchange for no prosecution. If we don’t hold people accountable when they abuse their positions of power, we should expect that they will continue to exploit vulnerable people in their next job,” Grady Sexton told InDepthNH.org.
Groups like the Conduct Review Committee and Police Standards and Training need to have experts on abuse and those who advocate for victims when they craft policies dealing with police misconduct, she said. And, police departments need to make sure they have healthy internal cultures where abuse and threats are reported and properly handled.
“Leadership in every department needs to create a culture where their employees and the public will feel comfortable quickly reporting misconduct – without fear of retribution or harm. If multiple staff within a department are aware of a problem and haven’t reported it until asked, there may be a larger issue within the department which needs to be addressed,” Grady Sexton said.