Department of Corrections Assistant Commissioner Paul Raymond is out on leave, and the department isn’t saying why.
Raymond is one of many top DOC officials implicated in a state Attorney General’s Office investigation over an alleged illegal use of force that turned out to be bogus. Raymond, who earns an annual salary of $150,000, was placed on leave on Jan. 28, according to Jane Graham, Strategic Communications Administrator for the DOC.
Graham declined to specify why Raymond has been off the job for more than a month. Asked whether he was on paid leave, Graham said she could not disclose that because it would indicate what type of leave he is on: medical, workers’ compensation, personal, educational, civil, administration or military leave or a suspension. State law limits the information that can be publicly disclosed in personnel matters, she said.
Commissioner Helen Hanks did not offer a comment Wednesday. Raymond did not respond to a request for comment.
Raymond was placed on leave weeks before the DOC’s appeal in the Thomas Macholl case went to the New Hampshire Supreme Court for oral arguments. Macholl, a veteran lieutenant in the department, was fired in 2023 over allegations that he used an illegal chokehold on an inmate. The DOC said the incident was caught on video.
The problem for Raymond and the rest of the DOC leadership is that the video does not show Macholl using an illegal chokehold, according to investigators from the Public Integrity Unit of the Attorney General’s Office, or PIU. Raymond ordered at least one DOC employee to remain silent about the fact the video does not show Macholl committing a crime, investigators said.
At the time of his termination, Macholl was a leader in the union for correctional officers. The incident between Macholl and the inmate took place on April 27, 2023, and Macholl self-reported his use of force at the end of his shift. Within days, he was fired, even before the DOC’s internal investigation was complete.
However, the PIU, called in to investigate Macholl at the request of the DOC, found the case against him did not add up. It all started with the video of the incident and Raymond, according to the PIU report.
“PIU Investigators find it troubling that, within a day of the incident, Assistant DOC Commissioner Raymond specifically asked Capt. [Scott] Towers to review the video footage and render a professional/expert opinion. Capt. Towers, through his training and experience, is arguably one of the most qualified N.H. DOC members to render such an opinion in a use of force incident.
“It was Capt. Towers’ opinion that the video did not support that a chokehold was used, yet when he asked Assistant Commissioner Raymond if he wanted this documented, he was told no. As a result, nowhere in the file is there any record of this information, which is, without question, exculpatory in nature,” the PIU report states.
PIU investigators looking at Macholl sought an interview with Towers due to the fact he is considered an expert. At the time, the PIU investigators did not know Towers had watched the video with Raymond, since there is no documentation of that in the file.
Towers did not speak to PIU investigators for more than a month. It turns out that he needed permission from Raymond to talk to the investigators, and Raymond did not give that clearance for weeks, the report states.
But Raymond isn’t the only DOC leader implicated, according to the report. Warden Corey Rindeau, writing in the termination letter to Macholl, goes into detail about Macholl’s alleged illegal actions caught on video. But the PIU investigators state the details included in Rindeau’s May 8, 2023, letter don’t exist.
“[A] number of the statements and conclusions made by Warden Riendeau, attributed to observations having been made from the video footage, are impossible to have been made from the video footage,” the report states.
Before Macholl was fired and the DOC’s internal investigation was complete, DOC Division of Personnel and Information Director Fallon Reed sent a letter to the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council on May 3, 2023, reporting Macholl’s alleged illegal use of force. In her letter, copied to Raymond, Reed claimed other corrections officers reported the incident to superiors.
However, PIU investigator Todd Flanagan reviewed all the DOC reports and found Reed’s claim about the other officers is not true.
“In review of the reports and records provided by the DOC, there were reports from numerous officers with respect to this incident, and none of the reports I have reviewed made mention of a chokehold or any allegation of excessive force being used by Lt. Macholl,” Flanagan wrote.
The day after Reed sent her letter to the Police Standards and Training Council, the DOC’s own investigators spoke to the two inmate witnesses to the incident with Macholl, and neither of them stated Macholl engaged in excessive force either, according to Flanagan.
Hanks followed up with a May 22, 2023, letter to Attorney General John Formella requesting a criminal investigation into Macholl. Hanks’ letter claims there is video of Macholl using the illegal chokehold.
The copy of the PIU investigation obtained by InDepthNH includes numerous redactions. Even with missing details, the outcome of the PIU investigation is not in doubt.
“After review of the materials provided, it is clear that the evidence does not support that a crime was committed,” Flanagan wrote.
Macholl appealed his termination to the Personnel Appeals Board, which sided with him. The board twice ordered him reinstated with back wages last year, but the DOC appealed to the Supreme Court. In the appeal, the DOC wants to have an evidentiary hearing before the personnel board to introduce new evidence of other supposed violations Macholl committed in order to justify his termination. The Court has not yet issued a decision.