From the Eagle Tribune;
Rockingham Co. sheriff resigns
Jo-Anne MacKenzie
jmackenzie@eagletribune.com
Rockingham County Sheriff Dan Linehan and Maj. Mark Peirce have agreed to resign their posts in order to avoid criminal prosecution, according to Attorney General Michael Delaney.
Linehan and Peirce were investigated by the Attorney General's Office. The investigation revealed that an annulled arrest record of David Lovejoy, Linehan's opponent in the last year's election, was released to two reporters.
Delaney said Peirce or someone in his office provided that information to reporters and it was Linehan's intent that the information be revealed. Reports were subsequently published about a 1989 case involving Lovejoy that was annulled.
It is a misdemeanor to disclose an annulled arrest or conviction record.
In a prepared statement, Delaney said he reached "a negotiated disposition with Linehan and Peirce regarding their unlawful conduct." If the two resigned immediately, Delaney agreed not to bring criminal charges against them.
Both men relinquished their New Hampshire police certification and Linehan agreed not to seek employment as a law enforcement officer in the state again.
"This type of criminal behavior will not be condoned, especially by those members of society who are sworn to uphold the law.’While I am confident that misdemeanor convictions would have been obtained, today's agreement ensures that Mr. Linehan and Mr. Peirce will immediately be removed from the highest levels of Rockingham County law enforcement and they will never again serve as members of New Hampshire's law enforcement community," Delaney said. "I believe that this agreement is an appropriate disposition of this case."
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42 comments:
Wow fired over a misdemeanor crime.
I will never understand this country.....
that's how it should be!!!!!!!!
It is a question of integrity. You should not be able to hold a position of public trust, if you abuse your authority.
I view this as hand writing on the wall to those who are still in law enforcement and have been engaged in illegal or unethical deceptive conduct.
Leave or be next.
He was fired for lack of integrity. Glad to hear the new AG draws the line.
I wonder how the grant investigation is progressing.
This is a riot! Do you know how many times Phil has used the PD to investigate people who piss him off, and then reveal the results of his investigation publicly.
Fred Childs was one such victim of this.
Now that Fred can pay him back, I hope he does.
Yes and the selectmen of that time didn't fire Consentino. Why? Because the corruption goes to the top in this town. To get Consentino you'll have to get them all.
Do you really think these selectmen are going to fire Consentino for illegal use of grant money? If you do, think again.
mo
Actually I fully expect them to do so. They have to or the town will be involved in more law suits.
It's gone too far and they have no choice. People are not going to just go away anymore.
If someone from our town had a record that was shown around for evil reasons, and this person had their record expunged, would it be a crime for the person showing it?
If someone saw this record after it was expunged, they could report it to the AG and we could expect the same result.
This is an opportunity.
So they should have been charged and plead guilty too. Losing their jobs is not enough for me.
"Lovejoy said he will seek the job of interim sheriff and run for sheriff in the next election."
Quote from the Concord Monitor.
Poetic justice. I'll bet Lovejoy will not be too tolerant of dirty cops now. I hope he gets the position.
If linehan did not know this was illegal or unethical, he would not have leaked it, he would have openly divulged it.
You can not reveal information that comes to you through the auspices of your office, if it is not clearly public information.
What are you guys talking about, Fred Childs getting payback, What happened to him?
Supposedly back in the mid sixties when Fred was a Lawrence cop, he got busted for something.
Anyway in 1998 or so when Fred was running for selectman, Phil was pissed because Fred was one of his biggest critics, got the arrest file, and was showing it around town to people to discredit Fred. This is what led to the infamous spitting incident between these two in the town hall.
But I heard that Fred got this expunged from his record.
If true, then the person showing the report was wrong to do it.
Guess who that was?
The story of Fred was all over the newspapers back then. It is hardly not in the public view if they printed it in the newspaper.
However, I'm not sure if it was expunged or if so, would local law enforcement be wrong for showing his record around.
It is certainly fighting dirty and unethical etc.
It never ends with this person. Who O why do we have to put up with this?
3 Obvious Facts:
1) The first person who posted on this page is an idiot.
2) The fact that an officer of the law who would release confidential criminal records would not be guilty of a felony is a blatant example of the law being warped by law enforcement's proximity to the legal process
3) The fact that Fred stopped being a critic of Consentino shows a type of shallowness; when Consentino screwed Fred it was wrong, but after Fred becomes a selectman (and gains protection by having power of Consentino and his budget) he is glad to sit by and watch as others get run over by the same man that he considered vile before.
Only in Atkinson folks, only in Atkinson...
It was expunged in the early 70's. But Phil wasn't showing around the news articles, that would be bad enough. He was showing the actual police file, like arrest record, docket # and that stuff. At least 2 people in town have spoken about Phil showing this to them back in the late 90's.
So, yes, just add it to the ever growing list of things that a REAL police chief would never do, that ours makes a policy of doing.
Phil Consentino is no different than Dan Linehan. He should have been fired years ago, but the selectmen won't do it.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the world of the Atkinson Mafia that takes your rights away from you while you sleep. When you wake up and find a Maggie Osborn bulldozing a right of way across your property and the Selectmen don't do anything about it, don't complain to the blog people that no one will help you.
Call Jack Sapia and find out he is on Osborn's side, and approves what she is doing to you. Call him first then the selectmen, to find out they are all on the same side.
Be sure to vote for Sapia this year when he runs for Childs position, so he can finish taking you rights away.
mo
I thought it was great when Bill Friel told Jack to leave the meeting!
While things have a long way to go around here, let's be thankful for a few things this Thanksgiving:
- Thanks to the pressure of this blog and the people that read it, we actually have about 1 1/2 selectmen that have the gonadal fortitude to actually ask questions of the police chief (Bennett has some guts, Friel makes a show of it but then folds like a paper fan). That's a he'll of a lot better than it was.
- The Planning and Zoning Boards know they are being watched and are at least pretending not to be in it to please businesses and developers at the expense of the quality of life in Atkinson. What were once extensions of Lewis Builders and Harold Morse and Co are under the eye of citizens who care like Tim (who Harold would try to bully and publicly demean years back when Tim would raise issues as chairmen of the conservation committee).
Now Harold's relegated to the budget committee after losing a selectman's race and his tactics have been revealed over lies around the Hampstead Water debacle.
At least that's some progress...
"It was expunged in the early 70's. But Phil wasn't showing around the news articles, that would be bad enough. He was showing the actual police file, like arrest record, docket # and that stuff. At least 2 people in town have spoken about Phil showing this to them back in the late 90's."
To the two people who have been shown this police file by Consentino: Please call the AG while the story of Linehan is fresh in Delaney's mind. What Consentino pulls around here is much worse than what Linehan did to Lovejoy.
Please do something. Everytime someone stands up and reports this stuff, we move a step closer to getting rid of his ugly self.
November 26, 2009 12:21 AM
Actually, Harold is on the Planning Board as an alternate. Being a alternate means that he can discuss matters at hand, make motions, and second others. But, he cannot vote if there is a quorum of full members, of which Tim is one.
So, if a matter comes up regarding any of the Lewis companies he must recluse himself by moving from the table to the audience, and, he usually cannot vote on anything. If he does not recluse himself I'm sure Tim or Mr. Bennett will remind him.
So, his membership on the PB is not as dire as it has been made out to be. However, it is still not right for him to be a member and he should resign.
Take for example the recent CC golf course expansion. The board as a whole did not find out about it until it was almost done contrary to proper procedure where it should have been reviewed before the first shovel hit the ground. You think Harold did not know about this? His wife owns the company. Would it not have been proper for him to remind Lewis Enterprises of the rules, and when they were ignored, advise the PB of the activity. Funny how none of that happened.
Cleaning up the mess we have will be one person at a time. Despite the limitations he has on the PB it is clear conflict of interest means nothing to him.
HAWC has become one of the most hated company's in town. He can start improving on that image by resigning from the PB.
Morse has repeatedly refused to step down off the board even when the issue was a blatant conflict of interest.
One of the problems is that chairwoman Sue Killiam doesn't enforce a member standing down; she's just another developer who's buddy-buddy and wants to establish a precendent of putting little to no restrictions on developers. Why?
She's a land developer herself!
That's why our board shouldn't be dominated by developers/business owners/people that think that business has no right to be regulated by by community government; otherwise, businesses run rampant, quality of life goes down due to noise and traffic, and property values fall.
Yet, look who gets appointed to our boards; pro business people dominate the boards (watch a few meetings for yourself) and vote most often to allow businesses to get what they want. Tim is one of the few people on our boards that has the guts to ask questions and protect Atkinson, thank God he's involved. He deserves our respect, and support!
Nice to see that Chuck Douglas was representing David Lovejoy and forced the corrupt Rockingham County Sheriff Daniel Linehan and his top deputy, Major Mark Peirce,out of office.
It's nice to see an honest attorney work so hard to get to the root of the evil at the state level. Isn't he the same Chuck Douglas that is suing the Town of Atkinson? If so, I wouldn't want to be in the Town's position.
I also wouldn't want to be in Consentino's position, if Mr. Douglas has brought his proctice of justice to the local level. Sounds like he has and Phil will be the next one to resign.
mo
yippee skippie
And isn't this same Chuck Douglas who recently had a slam dunk freedom of speech suit dismissed? Yep, we should all be shaken in our boots.
You should continue to worry about the legal success history of attorney Douglas.
You betcha. I'm scared s******s
The previous comment sounds like Sapia talking out of his a*s.
Looks like the defendants resigned because they couldn't afford a conviction on their record,knowing Chuck Douglas is going to continue his persuit of their illegal behavior.
Wonder if Consentino will be as smart? This looks like foreshadowing of better things to come.
Check out http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15980/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=quw3UWfe
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A former county sheriff accused of illegally leaking an annulled criminal record of his political rival now faces a lawsuit filed Monday.
Lawyers for David Lovejoy filed a libel and invasion of privacy complaint against former Rockingham County Sheriff Dan Linehan and Maj. Mark Peirce.
The two were forced to resign or face arrest last week after being accused of illegally disclosing Lovejoy's annulled record to reporters during the campaign for sheriff last year.
A newspaper article mentioning the annulled record was published in the days leading up to the 2008 election. At the time, Lovejoy was challenging Linehan, who served 13 years as sheriff.
The complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, also names a former Portsmouth Herald reporter who wrote an article mentioning the annulled conviction; and Rockingham County. It was filed in Rockingham County Superior Court.
"Twenty years ago, I was falsely accused of simple assault," Lovejoy, 45, of Hampton, said. "I was very young, in my early 20s, did not have the resources and or think it was a big deal at the time. Later on, I realized it was a big deal and took the appropriate steps to do what you're supposed to do, by the book. My opponent wanted to paint me falsely. "
Lovejoy, who ran a security business for many years, is seeking to be named interim sheriff and plans to run for the position in the next election.
State law says a person whose record is annulled "shall be treated in all respects as if he had never been arrested, convicted or sentenced," unless convicted after the annulment. The law says a person is guilty of a misdemeanor if he "discloses or communicates the existence of such record."
The disclosure issue has prompted Portsmouth Rep. Jim Splaine to call for further examination of the law.
He is proposing a 12-member commission including members of the attorney general's office and the media to examine the law, which dates back to the mid-1970s. "There are pros and cons as to the way the statute is written now," Splaine said.
Prosecutors, who had been investigating the matter since June, said Linehan asked Peirce to leak information about Lovejoy's 1989 conviction to two reporters last year. Attorney General Michael Delaney said he was confident that both men would have been convicted of the misdemeanor charge; the agreement ensured their immediate removal. Both men gave up their certifications as police officers, and Linehan agreed he will not seek any law enforcement position in the state again.
Linehan's attorney, Michael Ramsdell, summarized numerous U.S. Supreme Court cases in correspondence with the attorney general's office that he said supported the position that such a prosecution wouldn't survive a First Amendment challenge. He said the statute "represents an unconstitutional restriction on free and political speech." He also said the evidence didn't support proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Linehan was the person who disclosed the annulled record.
"Frankly, I think that he's got an excellent First Amendment defense pending the claims made in the lawsuit," Ramsdell said.
Professor Albert "Buzz" Scherr of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, said the fact that Linehan resigned and can no longer be in law enforcement "suggests to me that the attorney general didn't think highly of the First Amendment argument."
Scherr said the First Amendment right is not an absolute right. It's weighed in favor of additional considerations, in this case a statute that prohibits people from revealing the existence of a conviction that was later annulled, he said.
Peirce, who lives in Brentwood, has an unlisted number and couldn't be reached to comment. Howard Altschiller, executive editor of the Portsmouth Herald, confirmed that the newspaper is representing former reporter Karen Dandurant. He said he couldn't comment on a pending lawsuit. A message left for county attorney Jim Reams wasn't returned Monday afternoon.
I think this bill is good, It keeps the cops who have this info in line and it protects us if we have something expunged.
The NH cops suck and need this.
Look at Atkinson, what a scam in the PD here.
I'd like to leak some information about the Atkinson PD.
Who do I call?
If I were you, I'd call EVERYONE who has had trouble with the PD. I'm guessing you could pick any number out of the phonebook in Atkinson and they would take your complaint.
I'm sure they would follow through better than any complaint given to the PD or selectmen's office.
Try it and let us know how you make out.
PS If you should accidently blindly point to Consentino's number in the phone book...........Try again unless you want to be a marked man.
To the voters & residents of Atkinson I ask for your support in the 2010 election, I will help you if you help me, I ask for your support.
Lovejoyforsheriff.com.
Thank you.
David Lovejoy
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