AG Assumes Control Of Hillsborough County Attorney's Office

CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Attorney General is using a provision in state law to assume control of the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office after plea bargains and prosecutorial mishaps in high-profile cases that have shocked both the legal community and the public at-large. Gordon MacDonald installed former Manchester Police Chief David Mara, who will oversee the day-to-day operations of the office, until further notice. The move was made after an outcry from both police and the public of the outcomes of a number of cases handled by Michael Conlon, the new county attorney elected in November.

Those cases include: light sentences against a couple of accused of drug dealing after the death of their toddler who consumed drugs; the death of a woman by an accused domestic battery whose strangulation and threat charges were dropped by Conlon's office; and the dropping of criminal charges against a Franklin police officer accused of domestic violence.

Mara, who had been serving as the Governor’s Advisor on Addiction and Behavioral Health, New Hampshire's "drug czar," was named this week as an assistant attorney general this week. He previously worked in law enforcement for nearly three decades before being named drug czar.

MacDonald and his staff, who have been meeting with Conlon and his staff during the past week, informed Conlon of the takeover in a letter Friday.

Citing NH RSA 7:6 and 7:11, which states that the attorney general "shall have and exercise general supervision of the criminal cases pending" before superior courts as well as the power of the attorney general to "relieve any officer or person of any duty prescribed by law relative to the enforcement of any criminal law," MacDonald informed Conlon that he was taking over the office. MacDonald noted the "repeated failures" of Conlon and his department to show "leadership of the prosecutorial function of your office" despite "repeated efforts" by the attorney general's office to assist the county attorney.

MacDonald, a Republican, was recently rejected for a Supreme Court judgeship by the Executive Council. He requested Conlon's resignation but he refused, according to Manchester Ink Link.

According to previous press reports, Conlon, a Democrat from Goffstown, had no previous experience as a prosecutor before unseating Republican Dennis Hogan by more than 5,000 votes in an anti-Trump election wave in 2018 that saw Republicans in local offices being handed losses, a rarity during mid-term elections in New Hampshire. Hogan, of Nashua, a four-term county attorney, also had no experience as a prosecutor when he was first elected. Hogan was a former Nashua Board of Education member, state representative and candidate for state senator before winning the seat in 2010 by 53 percent of the vote.

MacDonald, in his letter, cited three recent cases that he insinuated showed that Conlon and his office were not performing proper prosecutorial functions.

One was the death of a toddler, Tayden Garvey, who ingested cocaine last year inside a Manchester apartment. The father of the child, Joshua Garvey, also of Manchester, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and received a 44-month sentence. Christen Gelinas, the mother of the 20-month-old, was not charged with homicide even though she was responsible for the drugs being in the home. She received an 8- to 17-year sentence on drug trafficking and common nuisance (allowing drugs to be sold in a home) charges.

Conlon told press outlets he had no knowledge of the plea deal and blamed police for botching the investigation of the case, saying Gelinas reached out to them about Garvey's drug activities in the home, but they failed to act.

A second case was the death of Jennifer Burpee, a domestic violence victim from Manchester. Damien Seace of Manchester is accused of killing her earlier this year. According to the AG, Conlon's office had an indictment against Seace on accusations he strangled Burpee in 2018, but all the charges — including a criminal threatening-terrorize charge, where Seace is alleged to have told Burpee he was going to murder and bury her, were dropped in February. Burpee was killed in mid-July and Seace was arrested not long after and charged with murder.

A third case was against part-time Franklin police officer and prosecutor Christopher Ahern of Epsom, who was arrested and charged with stalking a former intimate partner in Concord as well as trespassing and receiving stolen property. Due to a potential conflict of interest, the case was tried in Hillsborough County instead of Merrimack County, according to the Concord Monitor. The charges, however, were dropped in February.

Concord police were not consulted by Conlon or anyone in the county attorney's office about the dropped charges. A portion of a confidential agreement of the dropped charges violated the Victim Bill of Rights, MacDonald said.

All three cases were roundly criticized by many in the law enforcement community. The cases of Christen and Garvey led Manchester Police Chief Carlo Capano last week to state he and his office had "very little, if any, confidence" that the county attorney's office.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu commended Mara for his job with the state and thanked him for his willingness to take on "this critical challenge" in Hillsborough County.

"Chief Mara has served in an exemplary manner as our state’s drug czar and has an incredible record in law enforcement — specifically in Hillsborough County," Sununu said.

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