By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Days before Helen Hanks was ousted from her post as the Department of Corrections Commissioner, she admitted to New Hampshire State Police investigators that she destroyed evidence in the Jason Rothe murder investigation, according to a motion filed Monday.
Former Corrections Officer Matthew Millar is headed to trial on a second-degree murder charge in Rothe’s April 2023 death inside the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the State Prison for Men in Concord.
Millar’s lawyers filed a motion on Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court seeking an order to depose Hanks. This motion comes after evidence the DOC previously withheld from Millar’s legal team turned up troubling allegations against the former DOC chief.
According to the motion, evidence previously withheld shows Hanks met with corrections officers about Rothe’s death after she was notified that the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office was investigating and those officers were potential witnesses.
She directed several of those witnesses to write new statements about Rothe’s death, the motion states, while also holding back the fact her “investigation” turned up potential Laurie material about three of the witnesses.
The Laurie List, also known as the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, is a list of law enforcement officers who have violated rules or committed crimes that would cast their credibility as witnesses in doubt.
Hanks resigned her post seemingly out of the blue on Monday after 21 years with the DOC. The resignation was not her idea, according to an email she sent staff on Monday. Millar’s motion sheds light on one of the possible reasons for her ouster.
According to the motion, Hanks met with the State Police investigators on May 1 after the DOC finally released thousands of pages of discovery previously withheld from prosecutors and defense lawyers. That evidence shows she met with the witnesses in May and June of 2023, along with DOC Human Resources Director Fallon Reed.
“Ms. Hanks admitted that she likely took notes during those meetings but destroyed the notes, as was her practice,” the motion states.
Whatever was discussed in those meetings with the witnesses resulted in disciplinary letters placed in the files of witnesses Corporal Lesley-Ann Cosgro, Officer Timothy Wright and Officer Ian Reinholz. But what records remain of the meetings, notes taken by Reed, do not match the information in the discipline letters, according to the motion.
“[Hanks] indicated that what was discussed was memorialized in the disciplinary letters subsequently provided to the officers. However, much of what the officers said that is reflected in Director Reed’s notes do not appear in the disciplinary letters,” the motion states.
Hanks justified her meetings with the witnesses, despite the open criminal investigation, by saying she was investigating Rothe’s death, and not an alleged crime. Hanks also claimed that the meetings were not primarily about Rothe’s death, but were performance reviews for the officers.
However, Cosgro told the investigators the meetings were more than a simple performance review.
“Yeah, [Hanks] had her, she had her report from our internal investigation. They did the same thing that you guys are doing. Um, they gave her a report and she read it, and she had questions, like I said, and wanted a clarification on certain things. And some things, like didn’t make sense until I explained it to her. And then she did the eval., and said you’re good to go,” Cosgro told investigators.
Another major concern flagged by Millar’s motion is the fact that none of the witnesses alleged in their meetings with Hanks, or their subsequent statements, that Millar’s actions were criminal. Millar is accused of using excessive force by intentionally placing his knee on Rothe’s back for an extended period of time despite being trained about the dangers of that maneuver.
“None of the officers alleged that Mr. Millar applied pressure to Mr. Rothe’s back in the supplemental statements,” the motion states.
According to the motion, Hanks knew that none of her officers accused Millar in interviews or in their supplements statements when prosecutors had him arrested in February of 2024. The New Hampshire State Police probable cause statement contradicts the statements the witnesses gave to Hanks, according to the motion.
Millar had been scheduled for trial in March, but got that postponed after learning of the withheld DOC evidence. Judge Daniel St. Hilaire ordered the DOC to comply with prior discovery orders and delayed the start of the trial.
Attempts to reach Hanks Tuesday were unsuccessful.
In 2019, Rothe was committed to New Hampshire Hospital, the state’s psychiatric hospital, as he was deemed incapable of taking care of himself, according to the police affidavit filed in the case.
On Aug. 16, 2022, New Hampshire Hospital sought a court order to transfer Rothe to SPU due to the likelihood of him causing harm to himself and others. The SPU is home to violent patients from New Hampshire Hospital and the state’s prisons. Though billed as a hospital, it is operated as a prison and staffed with corrections officers as well as medical personnel.
From the day of his transfer until the day of his death, Rothe was housed and treated at SPU. He suffered from schizo-affective disorder and bipolar disorder and also had a colostomy bag which collected stool after a self-inflicted injury, according to court records.
The April 29, 2023, incident started with Rothe reportedly becoming agitated and refusing to leave a day room. Cosgro eventually led a team of officers into the day room to forcibly remove Rothe, and that is when things became violent. Rothe had assaulted an officer less than two weeks before the incident during a similar melt down over being told to leave the day room, according to court records.
Rothe threatened to fight and kill Cosgro and her team of officers when he saw them coming, according to court records. During the ensuing melee, Rothe was punched in the head several times as he struggled with the officers. Cosgro tried to hit Rothe with a taser at least five times to no avail, and Rothe got hold of a pair of handcuffs that he could swing as a weapon.
At this point, Millar responded to a radio call for help and entered the room. Another officer managed to get Rothe onto the ground and into a prone position on his stomach, and Millar and another officer put pressure on Rothe’s upper back and got him handcuffed, according to the documents.
Rothe stopped moving and Millar kept his knee on the inmate/patient’s back until a restraint stretcher was brought into the room. Rothe was then put onto the board, again in a face-down prone position. By the time Rothe got to a holding room he was not breathing, according to the reports.
One of the officers on the team had a video camera to record the incident, per DOC policy, but put the camera down about a minute into the incident and the camera was inadvertently shut off and there is no video recording of what exactly happened.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Rothe’s death a homicide caused by “combined traumatic (compressional) and positional asphyxia.”
Michael Garrity, spokesman for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, told InDepthNH.org that Hanks is not currently under investigation for her actions in the Rothe investigation. Prosecutors are opposed to allowing Hanks to be deposed by Millar’s team, and hearing on the motion is set for May 29.