Daniel Richards presented his case against the New Hampshire Supreme Court about voting rights. The case: Daniel Richards v Governor Christopher Sununu et al — it is covered here — pay attention to the “et al.”
Present on the panel hearing the case was Supreme Court Chief Justice, Gordon MacDonald who was appointed by Christopher Sununu as the Attorney General in 2017. Then Governor Sununu nominated MacDonald twice for his position on the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The second time he was appointed with only 4 years experience as an AG and before that working in private practice for Nixon Peabody — in other words with no experience as a judge at all.
I’ve asked before why New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald didn’t recuse himself from a case involving the Laurie List of police officers with credibility issues since Gordon MacDonald had argued to keep the list of corrupt police officers secret — one of whom he was working with directly and knew of his corruption when he made the statement to keep the list private in August 2018. That police officer, James F McLaughlin, has an ongoing inquiry against him which is so complex that it’s taken months. Clearly there’s a lot to hide because 28 pages from a Right to Know request came back mostly redacted.
Now I’m curious as to how Gordon MacDonald was ever appointed to the Supreme Court when New Hamsphire’s RSA 490 seems to indicate that he wouldn’t even qualify:
“Chapter 490: Supreme Court
RSA 490:1 — Justices
“On the effective date of this section, the administrative position of Chief Justice shall be held by the justice with the most seniority on the Court for a period of up to five years. Each succeeding Chief Justice shall serve for period of up to five years and shall be the justice with the most seniority of service on the Court who has not yet served as Chief Justice.”
Section 490:1
490:1 Justices. — The supreme court shall consist of 5 justices appointed and commissioned as prescribed by the constitution. On the effective date of this section, the administrative position of chief justice shall be held by the justice with the most seniority on the court for a period of up to 5 years. Each succeeding chief justice shall serve for a period of up to 5 years and shall be the justice with the most seniority of service on the court who has not yet served as chief justice. A justice may decline to serve as chief justice; however, no justice shall be permitted to serve successive terms as chief justice. In the event that all 5 justices have served a term as chief justice, succeeding chief justices shall serve rotating 5-year terms based on seniority.
Source. RS 171:1. CS 181:1. 1855, 1659:1. 1859, 2211:4. 1874, 97:1. 1876, 25:1. GS 189:1. 1877, 25:1. GL 208:1. PS 204:1. 1901, 78:1. PL 315:1. RL 369:1. 1945, 174:3. RSA 490:1. 1978, 33:1. 2001, 50:1, eff. Dec. 31, 2003.
490:4 Jurisdiction. — The supreme court shall have general superintendence of all courts of inferior jurisdiction to prevent and correct errors and abuses, including the authority to approve rules of court and prescribe and administer canons of ethics with respect to such courts, shall have exclusive authority to issue writs of error, and may issue writs of certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus, and all other writs and processes to other courts, to corporations and to individuals, and shall do and perform all the duties reasonably requisite and necessary to be done by a court of final jurisdiction of questions of law and general superintendence of inferior courts.
Source. RS 171:2, 3. CS 181:5, 6. 1855, 1659:1, 10. 1859, 2211:3. GS 189:1. GL 208:1. 1885, 42:1. PS 204:2. 1901, 78:7. PL 315:2. RL 369:2. RSA 490:4. 1971, 341:1, eff. Aug. 24, 1971.
490:8 Trial of Facts. — Questions of fact pending before the court may be heard and determined by one or more justices or by a master or referee as the court may order.
Source. PS 315:6. RL 369:6
When Gordon MacDonald was Attorney General, he was forced to admit that voter fraud was a problem after an exposé by Project Veritas.
But his problem to do better was apparently vacuous, judging by recent news announcements: Ex-Rep. Merner Arrested, House COO Knew He Was Serving Illegally Before Session Began.
AG Gordon MacDonald was reported to be investigating sexual assault at Dartmouth College when the class action lawsuit Rappuano & Does v Dartmouth College Board of Trustees was filed — per news reports. He is a graduate of Dartmouth — allegedly from the frat that “Animal House” was named. This is ironic since a reference to “Animal House” was made in the suit — you almost wonder if he helped draft it.
Governor Sununu, who appointed Gordon MacDonald to the position of AG, was on the board of Dartmouth Trustees (a non-profit) — being sued by Steven J Kelly Esq and Chuck Douglas Esq, who, coincidentally, is the Chair of the New Hampshire Judicial Selection Committee. After the initial report stating that AG Gordon MacDonald was investigating Dartmouth, nothing happened. However, the class action suit yielded a $14 million win, of which $4.9 million went to the attorneys, and $2.865 million (estimated from news reports) went to the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, whose budget is approved by Dartmouth Board of Trustees member Governor Sununu out of the State budget.
Coincidentally, Governor Sununu is also on the board of the University of New Hampshire, whose Prevention Innovation Research Center (PIRC) is partnered with the NHCADSV. UNH’s PIRC is the beneficiary of federal grants for research into domestic sexual violence and child abuse from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women.
Would AG Gordon MacDonald have investigated reports of sex abuse at the University of New Hampshire, and would the NHCADSV have worked with the attorneys suing it for claims? I believe the answer would be no.
Why? Because neither AG Gordon MacDonald, Governor Chris Sununu nor the NHCADSV would want to trigger an audit of how these federal funds received by UNH/NHCADSV are actually used — to support the NHCADSV to team up with civil attorneys who are pals of Gordon MacDonald to go after and extort schools (Dartmouth, St Paul’s School, Phillips Exeter Academy) which, unlike UNH, do not receive funds from the DOJ to research sex abuse and domestic violence; to sell these private schools their “Bystander” training product which is marketed under Soteria Solutions which was recognized for entrepreneurship using federal grants.
Startup Company Born Out of Federally-Funded Research at UNH High
AG Gordon MacDonald dismissed claims of sexual abuse at the Sununu Youth Detention Center as “victim negligence.” Governor Sununu also dismissed the class action lawsuit as a gold-digging exercise. But then he referred complainants to the NHCADSV and his ex partner from Nixon Peabody, David Vicinanzo (who is also legal counsel for the NHCADSV) lobbied his successor, AG John Formella, for a $100 million fund. Suddenly over a thousand cases were allowed to go forward but the State didn’t want its own employees to testify. As one judge pointed out, the AG’s office has a conflict of interests. David Vicinanzo is squabbling with Chuck Douglas over who gets the legal fees for the first complainant. Chuck Douglas used to be NH Supreme Court Chief Justice too and in that position he allegedly sent a child back to be abused at the YDC after she’d been raped, impregnated and had an abortion — all performed by state employees I gather.
It is not just the AG’s office that has a serious conflict of interest. It is the New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice, Governor Chris Sununu, and the NHCADSV. They are all very happy to get those federal grants and to squeeze every private organization for every penny they can get, but they don’t want any investigation into their own business. You would think they worked for private practices and were not paid for by the public.
There have been orders by the AG for Grand Jury Criminal Investigations into the Diocese of Manchester, St Paul’s School but none for the Youth Detention Center or the New Hampshire AG’s Office. David Vicinanzo & Chuck Douglas are silent on that and so is everyone else. I wonder why?
