Moving to Nashua – Think Twice
It has been a couple of months since I have written about Nashua and the Court system. I continue to file RTK lawsuits, and the City continues to lock records down and limit access to City Hall.
It has been a couple of months since I have written about Nashua and the Court system. I continue to file RTK lawsuits, and the City continues to lock records down and limit access to City Hall.
The City has hired Attorney Russell Hilliard to represent a Right to Know Petition alleging record violations within Director Cumming’s Economic Development office. Mr. Cumming built a publicly financed Art Center, denying the public access to financial and construction records, and installed barriers downtown without proper noticing of public meetings. Attorney Bolton and Attorney Leonard …
Court Settlements in Nashua are done in bad faith and are unreasonable. They are a ploy to ring up legal bills and produce no records. A settlement is not an admission of guilt, so settling results in no real improvement in the process. (In Nashua, winning in Court has resulted in no real improvement, either.)
The City of Nashua employs deliberately confusing tactics to win Right-to-Know Court cases. And they work. They scramble the records, provide incomplete responses and repeatedly request citizens clarify their written request for the records sought.
Since 2020, I have spent about 40 hours in the Courtroom. I can’t say that Justice has been served. The Court has shown a disturbing level of patience and acceptance for City Attorneys and employees who are willfully misrepresenting information, lacking candor, and, in some instances, boldly lying.
Last August, my Attorneys filed a federal suit against the City of Nashua, naming eight City leaders, alleging numerous violations of constitutional rights. All this stemmed from trying to access public records in Nashua, which began in 2018.
The City of Nashua has engaged in a game of hiding records and subverting the spirit of the Right-to-Know. In 2021, self-represented, I won several Court rulings on Right-to-Know petitions. I won both cases, but the City appealed the Judge’s ruling to the Supreme Court.
Mayor Donchess and I rarely align on issues, but one thing we agree on is justice is not served in Judge Temple’s Courtroom. The Mayor has been expounding in his many public forums about Judge Temple’s ruling in favor of some of my Right-to-Know cases.
I have painfully slogged through a number of Right-to-Know Court challenges and the process should have been much easier. Most Judges do not like citizen Right-to-Know cases as they are boring and burdensome.
As some of you recall, In February, I filed a formal complaint with the Administrative Office of the Court (AOC) against the clerk’s office that handles criminal complaints. Then I filed a Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) complaint against the Judge who could not handle his paperwork.