By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
When Salem Police officers started hauling teens out of a house party this summer for alleged underage drinking, two of the alleged party goers were missing from the group of the detained: the two sons of Deputy Police Chief Shane Smith.
Now, Smith is the subject of an internal investigation over the allegation he tipped off his sons that the party was about to be busted. Chief Joel Dolan confirmed his deputy’s actions are under review when contacted Thursday, but would not say much more.
“It’s ongoing, that’s all I’ll say about it,” Dolan said.
The June 28 party at James Kattar’s Hitching Post Lane home, and the 16 arrests police made, is the subject of private investigator Rob Morin’s report. Morin, a former Salem cop, was hired by Kattar’s attorney, Gerard LaFlamme. Morin’s investigation found evidence Smith’s two sons were told to get out of the party moments before a Salem Officer arrived at the house to investigate a noise complaint.
The investigation found the boys ran through the woods behind Hitching Post Lane to Stanwood Road where their mother, Samantha Smith, was waiting for them in her car.
According to Morin’s investigation, the first Salem Police officer called to the party got to the Hitching Post Lane house at 11:17 p.m. However, Samantha Smith’s car was seen on Stanwood Road at 11:21 p.m., just four minutes later. Assuming the Smith boys called their mother when the officer got to the house at 11:17 p.m., those times do not add up, according to Morin’s report. Morin tested the time it would take to get from the Smith house to Stanwood Road, and found it would take at least seven minutes of driving.
“Investigators traveled the route at an average speed of 40 MPH, which is 10 MPH above the posted speed limit. Maverick Investigative Services timed the drive and arrived at the top of Stanwood Rd. in just over 7 minutes,” the report states. “Based on the evidence that exists in the Salem PD responsive documents, it seems very unlikely that Samantha Smith would be at the top of Stanwood Rd. at 11:21 PM unless she had prior knowledge of police response to Hitching Post Ln. It would also be odd that Samantha Smith would pick her sons up from that location unless she knew the police were responding to Hitching Post Ln.”
More curious, is the response police had when Samantha Smith’s car was first spotted on Stanwood Road, according to the report. Police anticipated teens running off from the party and stationed an officer on Stanwood. Officer Paul Benoit spotted Samantha Smith’s car and radioed in the plate number to dispatch but did nothing else, even though he was there to get teens running away from the party.
“Officer Benoit does not approach the vehicle or contact the driver, likely because he knew that the vehicle was registered to Samantha Smith, who is Deputy Chief Shane Smith’s wife,” the report states.
According to Morin’s report, a confidential source claimed that Shift Commander Lt. Bob Kirley tried calling Shane Smith after Benoit radioed in Samantha Smith’s license plate.
“The Confidential Source advised that Deputy Chief Shane Smith did not answer the phone but texted Lt. Kirley ‘sleeping’ in response,” the report states. “Though it is possible that Deputy Chief Shane Smith had no knowledge of his wife and children’s activity, it seems unlikely. Even more unlikely is that Deputy Chief Shane Smith did not know after the fact.”
Shane Smith isn’t the only officer in Salem whose actions that night flagged as problematic, according to Morin’s report. There’s no indication that any of the 15 teens arrested that night for underage drinking were read their Miranda rights and none of the teens seem to have been given breath tests. In fact, the police reports on the arrests show weak probable cause at best, according to Morin’s report.
According to witnesses, police gathered teens on the front lawn of the Hitching Post Road home, randomly loaded up a van with detainees, and then let the rest of the teens go home with their parents. There’s no explanation in any of the police reports why some teens were arrested, and some let go.
Before any of the teens were due to be arraigned on the criminal charges, Salem Police Prosecutor Jason Grosky sent all of the teens and their families letters offering to drop the criminal charges. The deal would let the teens off the hook if they pleaded guilty to violating a town ordinance for possessing alcohol, and pay a $150 fine.
Grosky did not respond to a request for comment. According to Morin’s report, before he sent that letter, Grosky met with Morin and agreed there were potential problems with the cases.
“Grosky also concurred that all charges would need to be dropped on all individuals who were charged if he discovered that Probable Cause did not exist,” the report states.
Kattar is charged with a class A misdemeanor for hosting the underage drinking party, and could be sentenced to serve jail time if convicted. His attorney, LaFlamme, did not respond to a request for comment, but InDepthNH.org has been told the criminal charge is being dropped and Kattar will pay a fine for a violation-level offense. Court records do not yet show a disposition in the case.
