Dear Senators,
I understand that HB1633 has been relegated to “further review”.
I ask you this: This document shows that J. Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC made campaign donations to certain Senate candidates in 2023 on behalf of the NHCADSV, who paid it $6000 for lobbying.
Apart from the fact that straw donating is strictly illegal (Pras Michel of the Fugees is currently in prison for the 1MDB scandal which included straw donations; Sam Bankman-Fried is currently in prison for crimes tied to FTX which was making campaign straw donations), the NHCADSV is strictly prohibited from using federal and state funds for political lobbying since it is a 501 c 3, not a 501 c 4.
It is also required, under instructions from AG John Formella, to report the portions of its employees’ salaries devoted to lobbying. Executive Director Lyn Schollett, who testified in front of you against HB1633, is a registered lobbyist. She regularly reports the sum of $0 for lobbying, and yet she earns a salary in excess of $100K per year, and the NHCADSV states it tracks 150 bills. It has between 5 and 7 lobbyists in any given year, all salaried and paid but barely reporting any lobbying.
Since some of you were recipients of the donations by J. Grimbilas on behalf of the NHCADSV, are you able to vote objectively on any bill lobbied for or against by the NHCADSV or the lobbyists it brings in which include members of the AG’s office and police departments who are paid to enforce laws already passed, not to lobby for a private non-profit while earning publicly funded salaries.
As you know, Rep. Ellen Read was advised not to be present during the bill hearing in front of the Senate and was banned from the Senate chambers by House Speaker Packard after Jodi Grimbilas allegedly reported her for using expletives in the hallway outside.
During the initial hearing of HB 1633, when it was introduced, a SANE nurse (NHCADSV trained), was unaware of the 2020 passing of a law to prohibit home rape kits. If a SANE nurse trained by the NHCADSV is unaware of existing laws regarding rape kits, we cannot rely on NHCADSV SANE nurses or police, prosecutors, doctors to know what laws are regarding survivors rights and we cannot wait until an ill-informed SANE nurse decides whether or not to give someone a rape kit or not for the rape victim to be able to read their rights hidden inside the rape kit.
HB1633 is a law to inform victims of their rights which exist under existing laws already passed and lobbied for by the NHCADSV back in 2016.
Assistant AG Jeffery Strelzin testified in the Senate hearing for HB1633 that there would be “unintended consequences” if the bill passed. This is a preposterous argument. He is basically saying that if people were informed about a bill that was already law, there could be unintended consequences. A former assistant county attorney lobbied for the NHCADSV against another bill (HB1740), claiming there is a “sliding scale of due process.” This is another preposterous argument from the NHCADSV’s lobbyists, and it’s dangerous.
Let’s talk about the unintended consequences of not passing such a law – this is a real story in which I am somewhat involved:
A couple of years ago, a female electrician on a film in New York went to a bar to meet a male grip/electrician for a drink after the day’s filming. Then she woke up in hospital the next day having been raped. The last person she could remember seeing was the male electrician with whom she had a drink. Immediately, the studio assumed that the male electrician had drugged her drink and raped her. My client, the production company, hired an independent investigator who got hold of the video surveillance camera footage from the bar.
The truth was this: the male electrician left the bar before the female electrician, who remained there. Another man – a stranger – walked in and bought her a drink and drugged it and then left with her. He put her in a taxi, which dumped her at the hospital. Knowing her rights rather than waiting for someone who may have bad training to tell her what her rights are to a rape kit would not only help her find out who raped her, but would also find the real perpetrator of the rape and not the last person she remembered seeing.
Please consider carefully what I am saying. I have seen too many cases of the NHCADSV’s complicity in cover-ups of felony level sexual assault in schools to let this one go. If you want evidence of this, I urge you to read Jane Doe v St Paul’s School filed on May 11, 2018, and specifically paragraphs 40-43, which cover the felony level rape of the senior administrator’s son. The NHCADSV, AG’s office, and Concord Police knew about this, but money and secret deals prevailed, not justice.
Victims need to know what their rights are. The SANE nurses are unaware of current laws. Let’s not rely on them or overworked doctors in emergency rooms to have to read up. A simple palm card with the victims’ bill of rights on it would be helpful to everyone. That bill can include a notice that a rape kit is only helpful within X number of days of the incident.
Authors’ and Speakers’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers.
Disagree, agree, Got Something to Say, We Want to Hear It. Comment or submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
