New Hampshire House Democrat's Bill Pushes Fringe Conspiracies Targeting Victims' Advocacy Group

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

A California woman’s long-running effort to discredit the New Hampshire Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence is gaining new traction in Concord, where a Democrat-backed bill would subject the organization to a legislative investigation.

The bill has become a flashpoint in a bitter dispute involving a fringe activist, a Democratic lawmaker, and a prominent victims’ advocacy organization — raising concerns among Coalition leaders and supporters that unsubstantiated allegations are being laundered into the legislative process under the banner of oversight.

Film producer and talent agent Claire Best has spent nearly a decade alleging a sweeping conspiracy involving the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, the Concord Police Department, and the Coalition. Now, Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) is backing legislation that mirrors many of Best’s claims.

Coalition Executive Director Lyn Schollett said the bill is the latest chapter in what she described as Best’s campaign of harassment.

“For more than six and a half years, a Hollywood, California executive, Claire Best Hawley, has engaged in a sustained campaign to harass victims of crime, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, and those who work on behalf of survivors,” Schollett said in a statement shared with NHJournal. “That campaign has included repeated false and unfounded reports to law enforcement, defamatory public claims, and conspiracy-driven attacks. Each time those efforts failed, the goal shifted. Ms. Best’s strategy is now focused on weaponizing the legislative process to create headlines.”

Best has accused the Coalition and Amanda Grady Sexton, a Concord city councilor and Coalition employee, of participating in a racketeering scheme and other crimes, including allegations that children were harmed for financial gain.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Best wrote that Grady Sexton “should be investigated for perversion of justice, obstruction of justice, violation of civil rights, labor trafficking, misuse of public funds, cruelty to children,” among other crimes. In another post, Best claimed there was “racketeering … possibly money laundering too via NHCADSV as a cover.”

Best’s social media posts frequently referenced Grady Sexton’s children, prompting Grady Sexton to hire an attorney to issue a cease-and-desist letter in 2021. Grady Sexton did not publicly respond to the allegations until last month, after City Councilor Stacey Brown accused her of taking kickbacks from the Concord Police Department. Brown has said publicly that she is working with Best, according to Grady Sexton.

“Let me be clear: the allegations against me are false, and I welcome a public hearing to address each and every one of them,” Grady Sexton said in a statement. “I have not engaged in criminal conduct. I am not a human trafficker, and I have not profited from a ‘kickback scheme’ involving victims of crime. Independent audits, state and federal oversight, and decades of transparent public service confirm that reality.”

Brown did not directly answer NHJournal’s questions when contacted Saturday, instead repeating her claims that Grady Sexton used her position for improper financial gain.

Read’s bill relies on many of the same accusations Best has raised over the years, including claims of fraud, kickbacks, and illegal lobbying, to justify a legislative investigation into the Coalition.

Read told NHJournal that Best did not draft the bill and said she developed the idea independently. However, she acknowledged that after beginning work on the legislation, she communicated with Best and received information from her. Read denied that the bill was motivated by anger over the Coalition’s opposition to other legislation she has supported, though she said that conflict prompted her to begin “looking for answers.”

“They outright opposed, and resorted to some of the dirtiest tactics I’ve seen in 10 years legislating, to kill multiple obvious, no-brainer bills to help victims,” Read wrote in an email. “However, this was not why I wrote and introduced HB 1675 — but it was why I started looking for answers.”

Both Read and Best copied another news outlet, InDepth NH, in their email responses to NHJournal.

Schollett said the bill would do real harm to victims and advocates.

“HB 1675 manufactures a sham ‘investigation,’ threatens critical victim-services funding, and radically restricts Coalition leaders from raising the voices and needs of survivors in vital public arenas,” she said. “The Coalition already operates under extensive state and federal oversight and has a decades-long, unblemished record of transparent grant reporting and compliance. This bill adds nothing to accountability. It adds only harm.”

Schollett added that removing the Coalition from state boards reveals the bill’s true purpose.

“Targeting the Coalition does not protect victims. It protects abusers and attempts to intimidate advocates and survivors. It sends a dangerous message that harassment works.”

Best traces her dispute with the Coalition to the prosecution of Owen Labrie, a former St. Paul’s School student convicted in 2015 of sexual assault-related charges stemming from the school’s “Senior Salute” tradition. Labrie was found guilty of felony computer services use, three misdemeanor sexual assault charges, and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

Best, whose husband is an alumnus of St. Paul’s, told NHJournal she believes Labrie was unfairly targeted by prosecutors working with the Coalition.

“I couldn’t understand how a he-said/she-said case became so sensationalized,” Best said.

In her Coalition role, Grady Sexton supported Labrie’s victim and advocated for reforms to improve access to justice for survivors.

Best later formed a relationship with Labrie while he was incarcerated and said she assisted him following his release on GPS monitoring. She said there is no current financial relationship.

In 2018, the Attorney General’s Office reached an agreement with St. Paul’s School under which criminal charges were avoided in exchange for five years of independent monitoring to ensure compliance with sexual abuse prevention laws.

Best is also an advocate for Rev. Gordon MacRae, a former priest serving a 33- to 67-year sentence for sexually assaulting children. MacRae pleaded guilty in 1988 to paying a boy for sex and was later convicted by a jury of additional sexual assaults in 1994.

HB 1675 is scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday before the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.