The system currently in place for Sexual Assault Response Training allows the rapist to get away and the wrong person to get framed. The State must do better if it really wants to keep rapists off the streets.
The main official New Hampshire materials tied to the SART program under the Attorney General’s “A Model Protocol for Response to Adult Sexual Assault Cases” (2024 and 2026 editions) are that they do not mention the following terms: “due process”, “presumption of innocence”, “exculpatory”.
There is a mention of Brady in the section on cases involving body-worn cameras, merely stating that prosecutors must comply with their obligations under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and its progeny, as well as Rule 12 of the NH Rules of Criminal Procedure.
So here’s the issue. Apart from the obvious problem that New Hampshire’s Attorneys General, current and former, have protected police officers on the exculpatory evidence schedule (“Laurie List”):
A victim wakes up in hospital from being drugged with Rohypnol or similar and sexually violated. Investigators ask her what she remembers. She remembers seeing a guy in the bar, and the investigators immediately decide that he is the perpetrator. From that point on, all investigation is about looking for inculpatory evidence (they were seen at the bar together, he, her, a drink, and that’s the last she remembers).
In actual fact, this is a real situation with which I have personal familiarity. Luckily, there was security footage in the bar which showed that the police target left the bar before the woman. Another man arrived, and he had a drink with her. They left together. He was more likely the perpetrator than the first guy, who arrived at the bar after the woman was sitting there and left with her still sitting there. The footage came to light when a private law firm was hired to investigate – not the police, who did not obtain that footage, which wasn’t useful for their directive.
Under NH’s current SART training materials, there is no provision for the investigators to do anything other than go after the first guy. Many places (including the State House and Police Departments) scrub camera footage and re-use the tapes. It’s something that infamous NH sex crimes detective James F McLaughlin did, per records.
It’s imperative that New Hampshire introduce the words “due process”, “exculpatory evidence” and “presumption of innocence” so the right people get prosecuted and not the wrong people framed.
The “Sexual Assault Survivors’ Booklet” also does not contain these terms.
In the fine print of the above, you will find the following:
“The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
AND YET IT IS POSTED ON THE NH DOJ SITE…..
In 2019, Concord Police lost three police officers in the sex crimes unit who “retired”. Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin, Lieutenant Sean Ford, and Officer Chris D’Angelis. It was the same year and around the same time that then Merrimack County DA Robin Davis was sued by police sexual assault investigator Jennifer Adams for a hostile work environment. Adams and Davis did not see eye to eye on sexual assault investigations or on the use of media for pre-trial publicity.
Did these Concord Police officers really retire, or did they just follow the SART materials and ignore exculpatory evidence and Brady requirements? Concord City Council won’t say. Police Standards and Training won’t say, but these police officers were tied to the high-profile sexual assault cases surrounding St Paul’s School and the high-profile arrest of Concord School Teacher Primo “Howie” Leung, who has yet to be prosecuted in Concord for alleged sexual assault at Concord Schools.
The original charges from his arrest by Concord PD Julie Curtin and Lieutenant Sean Ford in April 2019 have been thrown out. The new sealed charges (39 of them) will never see the light of day until after Merrimack County DA Paul Halvorsen is gone. One wonders whether this case and these police officers are part of why he decided not to run again, and why Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood decided to retire before the new Concord Police Headquarters were completed.
“Merrimack County Attorney Paul Halvorsen, along with Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood, announced the new indictments Thursday afternoon. While the charges weren’t specifically listed, Leung, 41, faces “multiple felony and misdemeanor offenses alleging conduct from 2014 to 2019,” a press release said.“
Halvorsen ran for election based on his victim advocacy. Six years in, the Primo “Howie” Leung case is not prosecuted in NH; the police officers are gone, the charges are sealed, and Primex paid out $1.5 million in two settlements with little to no publicly available paperwork.
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