NH AG Says New Bail Law Working Well, Could Have Kept Berlin Murderer Behind Bars

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH

CONCORD, NH — Berlin's Sandra "Marisol" Fuentes Huaracha might have been alive today had a new law related to bail reform been in place last summer, Attorney General John Formella said Tuesday.

Meeting with the press six months after the implementation of the new law, which was in House Bill 592, Formella said Marisol's murder, while tragic, led to "a lot of great work."

Though it was not there to help her, he noted changing the legal standard of clear and convincing evidence to probable cause to hold individuals in pre-trial detention is making a key difference in safety, and while populations in the houses of corrections are up, it is "manageable," the attorney general said.

Pre-trial detention rates are up 50 percent in Coos County and in Merrimack County, jail numbers are up 30 percent since the law's implementation, the press was told.

Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who was attorney general in New Hampshire from 2004-2009, before becoming a U.S. Senator, and signed the law after running a campaign that focused on changing it, said the state's "broken bail system" is now fixed by the law signed a year ago.

She joined legislators, sheriffs, state police and prosecutors at the press conference at New Hampshire Department of Justice Press Room at 1 Granite Place South Tuesday morning to underscore that change in the law and noted New Hampshire is considered the safest state in the nation.

Formella was asked by InDepthNH.org during questioning about the case of the 25-year-old Berlin woman who was killed by her estranged husband, Michael Gleason Jr., who was out on $5,000 bail on charges he raped her and sexually abused her before he murdered her at her place of work and then took his own life.

Fuentes Huaracha had gone to Berlin police claiming he violated a protective order prior to her murder and told others she feared Gleason would kill her. A report on the matter has not yet been released by Berlin Police.

Formella said he has listened and read transcripts from the various proceedings involved in that case. The state also investigated the matter and released a report with suggested changes.

He called it "a tragic case that stays with all of us."

And while horrific, "it has inspired a lot of great work that has changed the system so Marisol has had a pretty incredible legacy in New Hampshire..."

Formella said as to whether this law would have allowed a different outcome had it been in place.

"I can never guarantee what a judge's or a magistrate's - which, they no longer exist - decision would have been. I can never guarantee what decision you are going to get from a judge. But having listened to those proceedings, I do believe that had the standard been probable cause to determine dangerousness and not clear and convincing evidence; had there been more of a focus on protecting public safety and that then focused more on that, which this law I think, has both changed the law and accomplished but also changed the perspective; I think that Michael Gleason would have been held," prior to trial on those felony charges.

As for the new law and its fiscal impacts on counties, Formella said it was anticipated that there would be higher populations at the county houses of corrections.

He said it is important to remember that prior to 2017 and 2018 when that legislature took its own bail reform measure that allowed what the governor called "a revolving door" to open, the census numbers in the jails are about the same as they are now.

Also, Formella said, a new data system the state is being stood up which will also complement the new statute. It will be providing for an exchange of timely information statewide, which is not available now.

The state's Executive Council recently approved a contract and the system will be online in late May or early June, Formella said, and it is going to make an important change. He thanked the work of both the Judicial Branch and the Department of Safety for working to see that improvement come to light.

"Any bail order will be entered the same day it is issued. That doesn't happen now," Formella said. "And from that moment law enforcement and prosecutors who work with law enforcement will be able to run a spots check and get information about any bail orders that are active for any individual...they will be armed with that individual's bail status and all bail conditions and that will include protective orders, no contact provisions, firearms restrictions, anything from that flows from that bail order. This is, I think, a very important new development and a very important tool that will be available for law enforcement."

"They are not being overwhelmed," he said. "The system continues to function well."

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.