Dear Richard Tracy,
I bring to your attention the following notice regarding Election Law Complaint Status for the period September 1, 2016-May 24, 2018. It is signed by then AG Gordon MacDonald.
I also bring to your attention the following paragraph of RSA 15 in particular:
15:5 Prohibited Activities. –
I. Except as provided in paragraph II, no recipient of a grant or appropriation of state funds may use the state funds to lobby or attempt to influence legislation, participate in political activity, or contribute funds to any entity engaged in these activities.
II. Any recipient of a grant or appropriation of state funds that wishes to engage in any of the activities prohibited in paragraph I, or contribute funds to any entity engaged in these activities, shall segregate the state funds in such a manner that such funds are physically and financially separate from any non-state funds that may be used for any of these purposes. Mere bookkeeping separation of the state funds from other moneys shall not be sufficient.
It is documented and extraordinarily egregious that public officials in New Hampshire, whether elected or appointed, should ignore RSA 15 and not only fail to abide by several paragraphs of the Statute but undermine a criminal trial to promote their own lobby interests, fail to report these and then use the State witness in the criminal trial (Chessy Prout) to promote their next lobby interest: Marsy’s Law.
Let me be very clear – there are victims of these crimes whose lives have been lost and/or endangered, and whose rights have been deprived. The public has paid for these public officials to defraud the public for the enrichment and political goals of the public officials involved.
According to filings by Marsy’s Law for New Hampshire, several public officials and others received payments for Marsy’s Law in the first quarter of 2018, and yet, per the requirements under RSA 15, the recipients do not appear to have filed their lobby earnings to the State. Most noticeable among these is Amanda Grady Sexton of the City of Concord Council and NHCADSV, who filed a report for the first quarter of 2018 for $2339 relating to her work with the NHCADSV but not the $15,000 plus expenses she received in the same quarter for Marsy’s Law.
RSA 15 also stipulates the requirement for Ad Honorarium reporting. AG Gordon MacDonald appeared in a streaming/internet/TV ad to endorse Marsy’s Law. Amanda Grady Sexton then wrote an endorsement for Gordon MacDonald to become New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice. I see no record of this ad honorarium lobbying. Similarly, I see no reports for Debra Altschiller, whose family member Marina Altschiller was also paid for Marsy’s Law. I see no lobbying reports for other members of the NHCADSV (Lyn Schollett, for example) for Marsy’s Law payments—Ditto, Concord Mayor Jim Bouley, who was also paid.
Chessy Prout, the State witness in NH v Owen Labrie, appeared as the face of Marsy’s Law in New Hampshire. There are no reports of Chessy Prout or her family as lobbyists for New Hampshire State interests or those of the NHCADSV or Congresswoman Ann Kuster or Senator Jeanne Shaheen or Children’s Advocacy Centers or Concord Police. Yet there are very clear records from Chessy Prout herself that she was recruited several months pre the criminal trial in August 2015 and that Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin recommended Laura L Dunn of SurvJustice to her for the upcoming criminal trial.
Chessy Prout and her family flew to DC to meet with Laura L Dunn (who also has not filed lobby returns in New Hampshire to my knowledge), who introduced Steven J Kelly and her parents, according to her memoir “I have the Right To” with an introduction by Congresswoman Ann Kuster, “sorted out the details.” Those details I believe, involved bringing a team of attorneys, advisors, lobbyists, publicists, and journalists to the criminal trial of NH v Owen Labrie and training witnesses, and prosecutors for the trial, which was used to promote a product “Bystander” and “Know Your Power” training for the NHCADSV/UNH who’d received money for this product development from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women.
Where is the lobby return from UNH/Sharyn Potter or NHCADSV for this? I do not see it.
Yet, the product was implemented at St Paul’s School immediately following the trial of NH v Owen Labrie (per a statement published on the day of the verdict in August 2015). UNH went on to create Soteria Solutions to trade the product and was recognized for entrepreneurship using a federal grant. Yet there has been no lobby return or ad honorarium lobby return relating to the use of NH v Owen Labrie to lobby for the product. Why not?
Where is Congresswoman Ann Kuster’s lobby return for her introduction to the memoir “I Have the Right to” used in order to get more VAWA funds for the State of New Hampshire ($2.3 million, I believe)? She took Chessy Prout to Capitol Hill in January 2017, discussed working with PAVE (for which Chessy Prout was an ambassador and her father, Alexander Prout, was on the board of directors), took Chessy Prout to UNH Franklin Pierce Law School in April 2017 as an ambassador for PAVE. A few days later, Owen Labrie’s retrial hearing was denied. This is not a coincidence.
According to Lyn Schollett, the NHCADSV lobbied AG Gordon MacDonald for a Grand Jury Criminal Investigation into St Paul’s School, which AG Gordon MacDonald ordered in July 2017 and completed in August 2018 involving Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin. The NHCADSV received a contract with St Paul’s School as a result. Where is the lobby return reflecting this? I do not see it.
Where is Concord Police Detective’s lobby return denoting gifts, kickbacks, etc., for her work in NH v Owen Labrie and “Justice for the victim”? She was rewarded by the NCVLI (who published the guide to pretrial publicity by Amanda Grady Sexton and Steve Kelly, who also happened to be a board member of NCVLI) – she wasn’t working for the benefit of the public. She was working for the benefit of the NHCADSV and Steven J Kelly and his lawsuit against St Paul’s School. Where is her lobby return?
Where is the return for the NHCADSV denoting the $2.865 million reward they got for Rapuano & Does v Dartmouth College – a reward they would not have gotten if they did not use social media and make phone calls to block ABC/GMA from airing an interview with Owen Labrie in July 2019 when the Rapuano & Does v Dartmouth was in mediation? It is a violation of the law for a publicly elected official to block a citizen’s right to free speech. It is a worse violation of the law when that public official seeks to block a program from airing because she knows it contains content that will expose the malfeasance of Concord Police Department; attempts to bribe a state defendant (Owen Labrie) while he was waiting for his appeals in return for access to exculpatory evidence including police evidence which the civil attorneys with whom Amanda Grady Sexton was colluding with were in possession. It is even worse when you consider that Amanda Grady Sexton is Chair of the City of Concord Public Safety Committee which approves the budget for police investigations and payments to witnesses.
Stonewalling, ignoring, and deleting files is not the answer. If New Hampshire public officials, including Gordon MacDonald, Amanda Grady Sexton, Congresswoman Ann Kuster, Concord Police Detective Julie Curtin, Chuck Douglas (who also received payment for Marsy’s Law while he was also representing Chessy Prout who was the face of Marsy’s Law) then there is no point in having RSA 15 at all.
Why are public officials, guardians of the law, and guardians of law enforcement exempt from RSA 15?
Orignal Email above, dated May 27, 2023
From: Claire Best <claire@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: NH Public Officials Lobbying violations or RSA 15 for Marcy’s Law & NH v Owen Labrie
To: richard.c.tracy@doj.nh.gov <richard.c.tracy@doj.nh.gov>
CC: <5 recipients redacted>.
