criminal justice
Advocates Want Police Discipline Hearings Open
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Police disciplinary hearings before the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council need to be public, according to advocates testifying in Concord on Monday.
News
More Hurdles Likely In Federal Court for Convicted Child Killer Jim Dale
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CONCORD – U.S. District Court Judge Steven J. McAuliffe has approved a magistrate’s report and recommendations that allow a last-ditch appeal by Jim Dale to move forward, but there are still legal hurdles to overcome before the convicted child killer can hope for a new trial.
criminal justice
Op-Ed: Stop NH From Imprisoning Mentally Ill People Who Haven’t Committed a Crime
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State Rep. Renny Cushing is urging the public to attend a legislative work session on prohibiting the transfer of people never charged with a crime from the New Hampshire Hospital to the State Prison Secure Psychiatric Unit. The meeting is Sept. 14 in the Legislative Office Building, Room 205 at 10:30 a.m. in front of the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee.
criminal justice
Evidence of Police Dishonesty Leads to Overturned Convictions nationally
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Editor’s note: This story by Nancy West was sponsored by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and first published by VTDigger on July 19. West founded the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism, which launched its news website InDepthNH.org on Sept. 1.
Maybe Debra Jean Milke masterminded the murder of her tow-haired son Christopher in Phoenix just befyore Christmas 1989 to collect the 4-year-old’s $5,000 life insurance policy.
Or maybe – as Milke has insisted all along – she was just the innocent victim of a corrupt cop with a proven pattern of lying who was out to win a conviction.
criminal justice
150 Names on Lists of Potentially Dishonest Police Officers in NH
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The names of an estimated 150 sworn law enforcement officers are maintained on a hodgepodge of “Laurie” lists kept by the state’s 10 county attorneys in New Hampshire.
It appears many of the officers no longer work in law enforcement in the county that lists their name, but it is impossible to be sure because the names are redacted and each county attorney reports their numbers in different formats. (see lists from all 10 counties below.)
CLICK on headline for more …..
criminal justice
No New Trials For Two Killers Despite ‘Brady’ Violations Decades Ago
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Timothy Brown would likely be nearing parole if he had accepted the plea deal prosecutors offered him for the January 1981 murder of Neil Watson in Nashua: 30 years to life.
Instead, Brown rolled the dice opting for a jury trial for the brutal slaying of his friend and next-door neighbor.
CLICK on headline for more …..
criminal justice
Rochester Police Officer Wants off ‘Laurie’ List
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The state Supreme Court will hear arguments on Thursday from Rochester Police Officer John Gantert seeking to remove his name from a confidential “Laurie” list of potentially dishonest law enforcement officers.
criminal justice
ACLU-NH: Indigent Mother Jailed ‘Illegally’ For Failing to Pay Court Fine
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What happens when a 22-year-old single mother of two toddlers who can’t afford to pay a court fine fails to complete 62 hours of community service instead? For Alejandra Corro, it meant being sentenced to serve nine days in Valley Street Jail in Manchester by Judge Thomas E. Bamberger in the 9th Circuit Court, Nashua District Division, on March 4, 2014. That was after Public Defender Ryan Guptil told Bamberger that Corro had completed only 20 hours of the 62 hours of community service because of a significant fire in her home that forced her to move six weeks earlier. (Click on story to hear court hearing audio.)
“How did that stop her from doing the community service?” Bamberger asked, according to a court transcript of the hearing. Corro wasn’t alone, according to an ACLU-NH’s report released Wednesday (Sept.
criminal justice
Roger Wood Indepth: Police Cutting Drivers Slack on Hands-Free Law
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It appears that police departments in New Hampshire are cutting motorists some slack over the hands-free driving law. The state statute passed July 1st prohibits all use of hand-held cell phones, GPS units and other devices while driving, except in emergencies. Since the law went into effect, Dover police have stopped 214 cars and given out 25 summonses. That figure is lower in Portsmouth, where police have cited only three drivers from the 93 motorists stopped. State police in Troop A, based in Epping, have summonses over half the 414 drivers stopped.