Former Concord Police Officer Indicted On Simple Assault Charges

CONCORD, NH — A former Concord police officer has been indicted on simple assault charges connected to arrests he was involved with March and April 2023.

Richard Cobb, 40, of Prescott Valley, Arizona, was indicted by a grand jury in Merrimack County on four counts of simple assault by an on-duty law enforcement officer. According to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, Cobb “knowingly caused unprivileged contact to two individuals on March 26, 2023, and twice to the same individual on April 1, 2023.”

Cobb has been on unpaid leave since May 2023. The grand jury issued the indictments on March 13. While the statute of limitation would have been up for a year on a simple assault charge, a public servant provision in state law allows police to be charged with “misconduct at any time when the defendant is in public office or within 2 years thereafter.” Since Cobb is still employed, he was still able to be indicted.

The first case was connected to a rollover crash on Iron Works Road on March 26, 2023, involving a pickup truck that crashed near Shea Farm, the women’s transitional housing unit.

Vehicles were reportedly racing on the street before the crash and multiple ambulances were called to the scene to deal with injuries. Cobb was one of the officers at the scene.

According to his affidavit report, Madeline Elizabeth Smith, 35, of Iron Works Road in Concord, “was actively moving pieces of the scene around.” When requested to stop, since she could have been affecting the integrity of the investigation, Smith was asked to stop but accused of refusing to do so.

“No,” she said, according to the affidavit, “I’m going to keep doing this.”

After being asked again to stop and her refusing, Cobb approached her and requested her name and information and whether she had any connection to the crash, the affidavit stated. Smith, however, was accused of interrupting him and refused to stop clearing items from the scene. After not answering questions and being told she was being escorted from the scene, Smith said, “escort me then” and “jerked her elbow away from (Cobb), stating, to the effect of, ‘Don’t f------ touch me’” after he tried to move her along.

At that point, another woman unknown to Cobb, a minor at the time who is now 18, “got in between me and Madeline, preventing me from controlling Madeline,” the affidavit stated.

The girl “put her hands on me to force me away from Madeline,” the report stated, “(and) I moved (her) aside with the use of an arm bar.”

Cobb attempted to control Smith’s left arm but accused her of resisting so “I leg swept Madeline to the ground.”

Cobb wrote in the affidavit, while Smith was on the ground and he was on top of her, he was able to get one of her hands into handcuffs while a second officer was struggling with the girl. He accused Smith of screaming and refusing to stop resisting arrest.

“I applied pain compliance to Madeline’s right wrist and after a quick moment, Madeline provided me with her other arm where I was able to place it into handcuffs,” the report said.

Smith was charged with felony falsifying physical evidence, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest or detention charges.

Both Smith and the girl are listed as victims in the first indictment. It does not appear as if the second officer, who was reportedly struggling to contain the girl during the incident, has been charged or indicted. That officer left the Concord Police Department a couple of months later and now works for another department in New Hampshire, according to their LinkedIn account.

In May 2023, the evidence and resisting charges were nolle prossed.

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According to a check of district court records, Smith’s criminal history dates back to five violations beginning when she was a teenager and six criminal charges between 2007 and 2023. Those charges include assault, theft, driving after revocation, resisting arrest, and a dog at large violation.

In Merrimack County Superior Court, she has active felony receiving stolen property, resisting arrest, and disobeying an officer charges from July 2023, after she was accused of possessing a stolen motorcycle at the McDonald’s Restaurant on South Main Street.

In that incident, according to scanner chatter, an officer at McDonald’s requested backup after tracking down Smith and the stolen motorcycle at the drive-thru. She was accused of fleeing the scene, but the officer caught up with her. While fleeing, Smith injured her knee and Concord fire and rescue teams took her to the hospital.

An officer went to the hospital and later reported the woman was in a decontamination room due to her being “covered in gasoline,” according to scanner chatter. She requested an attorney, so officers refrained from questioning her, one officer told dispatch.

Smith is due back in superior court on April 3 for a capped plea and sentencing hearing.

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The second victim was reportedly a transient man who was taken into protective custody on April 1, 2023. Patch has no record of the arrest taking place.

Cobb is expected to be arraigned two days after Smith’s stolen motorcycle plea deal on April 5 in Merrimack County Superior Court. If found guilty, he faces two to five years in prison and a $2,000 fine for each count.

During his last full year of employment with the city, in 2022, he earned $82,500. He was hired by the department in April 2017.

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