Canterbury Police Chief Charged with Sexual Assault

(Editor's note: LaRoche was found not guilty of the 10 sexual assault charges against him. Reports say he admitted to an "inadvisable but consensual relationship" with the girl who was 16 at the time.)

The police chief of Canterbury has been arrested after the Boscawen Police and New Hampshire Department of Justice investigated a sexual assault allegation from the late 1990s, according to a press statement.

John Laroche, 44, was arrested on Aug. 4, 2015, on one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the New Hampshire Attorney General. It does not indicate a conviction. Click this link to find out how to get a name removed from a New Hampshire Patch police report.

According to Attorney General Joseph A. Foster, the department investigated a complaint that he had sexually assaulted the girl sometime between Jan. 1, 1999 and Aug. 3, 2000, “while in the vicinity of the boat ramp in Boscawen.” The girl was 16 to 17 at the time of the incident, according to the report.

“Laroche was in a position of authority over the female and used this authority to coerce her to submit,” according to Foster. “At the time of the assault, Laroche was a Boscawen Police officer who oversaw the Boscawen Police Explorer Program and the victim was a Police Explorer.”

The assault was reported by the victim to the Boscawen Police on Sept. 11, 2014. Shortly thereafter, the NH AG’s office was notified of the allegation and an investigation was initiated.

Laroche is expected to be arraigned in Franklin District Court on Aug. 5. He’s being held on $5,000 cash bail.

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