InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/tag/laurie-list/page/3/)
The attorney general has removed 28 confidential names from the Laurie list of 281 dishonest law enforcement officers before the process in the new law requiring a judge to make that decision has had time to be fully implemented.
Shortly after Gov. Chris Sununu’s signing of House Bill 471 into law on Wednesday, most of the litigants in a public records lawsuit against the state Department of Justice filed a Notice of Voluntary Nonsuit Without Prejudice, effectively withdrawing from the case that sought to bring daylight to the confidential list of dishonest police known as the Laurie List.
A thick blue line of police officers surrounded Gov. Chris Sununu Wednesday as he signed into law three bills which together, he says, herald a new day in police accountability throughout the state.
Since the Attorney General’s Office began maintaining the Laurie list of dishonest police now known as the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule in March of 2017, a total of 14 redacted names have been confidentially removed, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward.
A judge on Friday delayed a status conference for 30 days so the news outlets suing Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to make public the Laurie list of dishonest police officers can continue to negotiate a possible settlement.
Solicitor General Dan Will argued to the state Supreme Court Wednesday that the Laurie List of untrustworthy law enforcement officers should remain secret because it is “imperfect” and was never intended to be made public.
Scott Traudt thought he had a leg up getting confidential Lebanon police records that he believes contain evidence of misconduct after the state Supreme Court recently overturned two cases involving a 1993 ruling that had seriously limited public access to such records until then.
In one year, the list of dishonest law enforcement officers in New Hampshire has grown from 153 redacted names to 258.
John Gantert, the Rochester police officer who fought for five years to have his name removed from a “Laurie” list of potentially dishonest officers, has lost his last appeal – this one to the state Supreme Court.