Some Concord City Councilors Confirm Not Knowing About Criminal History Of ZBA Appointee

CONCORD, NH — Some Concord city councilors are calling for a reconsideration of the appointment to an alternate seat on the Zoning Board of Adjustment they approved Monday, after the nominee’s past criminal charges, including arson, and some colorful and weird comments on social media were revealed.

Mary Rose Deak, 70, of Jennings Drive in Concord, was nominated to hold an alternate seat on the ZBA by City Manager Tom Aspell in mid-April. In the submission, he said she had lived in the city for about two decades and was a former state employee, specifically, working as a lab analyst and environmental monitor.

Like most nominations to volunteer boards in the city, Deak’s proposed appointment was placed on the consent agenda and approved by voice vote, along with other appointments and reports on Monday night.

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Before the vote on Monday, Patch informed Aspell and Mayor Byron Champlin of Deak’s prior criminal history and civil stalking complaints against her and by her in two emails. They did not respond to the emails. They also did not pull her nomination for discussion or transparency with the council.

Similar to a case involving the Concord School District school board appointing a principal who was accused of spying on school board members while he was a superintendent in another city last year, councilors did not search for information themselves about the nominee or pull her from the consent agenda.

The charges against Deak include arson and resisting arrest or detention, accused of starting a fire at the old New Hampshire DOT building, now being turned into apartments, on Stickney Avenue, as well as negligent driving and resisting arrest in another incident. Deak also received a summons for illegally kindling a fire in Eagle Square.

On Tuesday, after confirming the voice vote of her nomination, city councilors were asked if they knew of Deak’s priors. Most said they were not aware of the charges.

Amanda Grady Sexton, an at-large city councilor, said the nomination indicated applicants for boards and committees need greater scrutiny.

“I previously advocated for a more transparent process for appointments, and I will ask the mayor to create a committee to review the city’s nomination process,” she said. “I support a policy change that requires a public hearing for any applicant (who) seeks to serve on a board that has more than just an advisory role, such as quasi-judicial appointments to the Planning Board, Board of Appeals, and ZBA.”

Fred Keach, another at-large city councilor, said he was “blindsided, to be honest,” by the information.

“I plan on taking steps to reverse the nomination,” he said.

On Wednesday morning, Keach requested a reconsideration vote with the Concord city clerk’s office.

Brent Todd, who represents Ward 1, said when councilors usually receive nominations, they are already vetted. He suggested contacting and talking to Aspel to confirm Deak was vetted.

Ward 5 City Councilor Stacey Brown said if officials had the information in advance, “it should have been shared.”

Jeff Foote, of Ward 10, concurred with Keach, supporting a motion to reconsider.

Other councilors did not respond to a request for comment.

Colorful, Strange Comments Online

Since the story was published, several Patch readers revealed some of Deak’s more colorful and strange comments on social media — including claiming she had been implanted with devices.

The former Republican candidate for the executive council claimed in a public post on Facebook in April that her granddaughter, during a school concert, was subjected to “the Rainbow and Serpent tetra do toxin pufferfish Haitian and white voodoos.” She said, “Note the face formed on her forehead in the shape of a keyhole. I don't think anything more evil can exist in this universe. Her dad has these 80k treatments every month supposedly for MS, but he is a voodoo cook and tin soldier death maker. I think he is responsible for his creepy picture to be on this keyhole.”

In another post, referring to the July 2022 car fire involving her Kia Soul, outside the Statehouse, she claimed “a Neuralink or some other kind of brain chip” caused the fire.

“Cell phone Apps can hurt my head,” she wrote. “I saw a target wave of plasma that expanded and my car blew up. I guess someone was involuntary human testing me for those cell phone attacks they had in Lebanon where the cell phones blew up. That is what the Persephone Inc. device does it; allows my torturers to track me by satellite.”

Deak claimed shockwaves from her Kia blowing up damaged the sidewalk, leaving numerous cracks.

In a follow-up post, Deak claimed, after buying her second Kia Soul, “There were human traffickers that made fun of me and were perverted there at the car dealers and the cops came and kicked me out with my new car. That is how a human tracking slavery device is. Biden's administration started this when I got artificial organs from that Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchester. I got an artificial male organ in 2014 in Biden's District in Delaware from Nanotech that was in my coffee at work.”

In November 2023, after sharing a post about stealth materials cloaking military vehicles, Deak claimed she had seen “a stealth nose ring on a woman in Concord” and “cops use it also” in food and consumer items. She added, “I was a victim of a stealth sub roll from Market Basket because the cops were mad at me.”

Deak was unavailable for comment at publication time and contact information was redacted from her resume as part of the nomination submission. Several Patch readers stated they saw her panhandling for donations on a Concord street Wednesday morning.

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