By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
More than a year after a legal response to a right-to-know request was blocked by former Claremont Police Officer Jon Stone, the records detailing the reasons for his termination from the department are a step closer to being disclosed.
This week, Sullivan Superior Court Judge Brian Tucker ordered that the records be released under a protective order to the parties involved in an injunction lawsuit brought by Stone. That means the records could become public soon.
This reporter filed a right-to-know request with the city of Claremont in June of 2020 seeking access to Stone’s police disciplinary records. Stone, a current city councilor and, at the time of the request, a candidate for state representative, was fired from the Claremont Police Department in 2006 and the reasons for his termination have yet to be disclosed.
City Manager Ed Morris responded in August of 2020 that the city had records responsive to the right-to-know request detailing 11 sustained disciplinary cases against Stone. Before Morris released the records, however, Stone filed an injunction to keep the records from being made public.
Stone’s complaint seeking the injunction, and his pleadings are filed under seal, meaning it is not known what legal grounds he is arguing to keep his records sealed.
Tucker also ordered that the parties gain access to the unreacted documents under a protective order, and that redacted filings be made available to the public. These disclosures had not yet been made as of Thursday.
According to statements made in court, Stone entered into a union-mediated agreement with the city to have his personnel records expunged in exchange for his termination.
Stone’s attorney, Peter DeCato, accused the city of violating the agreement by not destroying the disciplinary records. But, Shawn Tanguay, the city’s attorney in the case, said during a hearing last month that Stone’s disciplinary records that are responsive to this reporter’s request are not in Stone’s personnel file.
Tanguay said the disciplinary records were never part of Stone’s personnel file and instead, they are currently contained in the Claremont Police Department’s internal affairs file. This would mean the city did not violate the mediated agreement with Stone, and the records can be released under the state’s right-to-know law.
The release of the records under a protective order, as ordered by Tucker, will allow Stone and DeCato to determine if the city is in fact in violation of the mediated agreement.
Since this reporter began seeking the records, the New Hampshire Union Leader and ACLU-NH have filed subsequent identical right-to-know requests and filed to intervene in court and become parties in Stone’s injunction case.
Neither DeCato, Tanguay, or Gilles Bissonnette, legal director with ACLU-NH, responded to requests for comment on Thursday.
