The NHCADSV has made a series of claims that are false – this undermines not only any perception about the NHCADSV but also risks undermining trust in the public agencies it works with:
Sensationalist lies are very dangerous. They harm victims. They harm defendants. They harm women and children, they harm credibility, and they harm the justice system.
Here are the facts – all documented:
The NHCADSV’s members have been funded by a California billionaire with a felony history to push through Marsy’s Law. The NHCADSV failed to disclose these payments as required under RSA15 and RSA664. There is NO MENTION of their work for Marsy’s Law anywhere on their IRS 990s or in their audits, and yet they used their NHCADSV emails and titles to promote the bill.
The NHCADSV paid Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC in 2023 a sum of $12,000 or more. Grimbilas filed RSA returns showing that it used this money to make individual campaign contributions to certain candidates for the Executive Council, the Senate and to the Committee to Elect House Republicans and the NH Dem Victory Campaign. The records for this were provided by the Secretary of State. Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC was also paid for Marsy’s Law in 2018 when the Director of Public Affairs for the NHCADSV was acting as Executive Director for Marsy’s Law. It is therefore safe to conclude that payments to Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC were authorized by the Director of Public Affairs for the NHCADSV and the Executive Director of the NHCADSV, who was also paid in 2018 for Marsy’s Law, and also failed to report the earnings as required by the Secretary of State.
IRS laws prohibit 501 c 3 non-profits from making political donations. Using another company to make donations is what is called “Straw donations” and is strictly illegal. It would appear that Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC was hired by the NHCADSV to make straw donations to certain select political candidates. There is no mention in either the NHCADSV’s IRS 990 returns or its audits of this activity or these payments to Grimbilas.
The NHCADSV claims that HB1675, with its 91A amendment, will allow abusers to access information on victims. The NHCADSV claims that it provides confidential services to victims.
The NHCADSV cannot make this claim of confidentiality for the following reason: Its attorney, David Vicinanzo, represents not only the NHCADSV but also the separate (with separate tax IDs) crisis centers, as well as victims who are referred to those centers. That means that client – attorney privilege is broken due to joining the clients and multiple interests being served by one attorney/law firm. The NHCADSV was set up under NH Bar, and since NHCADSV serves as a referral service to members of NHBar seeking victim clients, this conflict of interest has been ignored and dismissed by the Attorney Disciplinary Office as well as the NHCADSV and NH AG (a member of NHBar, which receives VAWA money for which the NHCADSV campaigns and submits grant applications).
HB1675 allows the legislature and the public the same access that they get with the AG’s office, hospitals, and police departments that handle sensitive information about individuals.
HB1675 would allow members of the legislature, serving the public interest, as well as members of the public, to see what is going on behind the scenes with regard to the NHCADSV’s excessive lobbying. It would allow access to see their work for other lobbyists, such as Marsy’s Law/Henry T Nicholas III, or to their payments and arrangements with J. Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC.
For a non-profit that is 98% funded by public money, the NHCADSV is not “an open book” as Executive Lyn Schollett claims. It tracks 150 bills per year, pays lobbyists, yet reports minimal amounts for lobbying. It is expressly prohibited from using federal grants and state budget funds to influence legislation. Yet that is what it does.
Victims will be much better served when the NHCADSV is subject to 91A, like other public agencies. The fact that it is protesting so hard with blatant, sensationalist lies with clickbait words should cause alarm for all. A reliable law enforcement system cannot operate with integrity if it is working with a non-profit that operates with the level of Page 6 sensationalism.
Those against HB1675 should come clean on whether they received straw donations from Grimbilas Strategic Solutions LLC on behalf of the NHCADSV or whether their businesses are otherwise beneficiaries of or tied to the NHCADSV’s business.
Public interest must triumph over lobby and business interests.
The NHCADSV cannot be both a lobbyist and the exclusive organization to which the AG’s office refers victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The AG’s office is there as the chief administrator of law enforcement, not the tool for a non-profit which has used the NH DOJ to service its own goals for an out-of-state billionaire, sex and drug abuser, and convicted felon, Henry T Nicholas III.
Think about this: The AG’s office refers YDC victims to the NHCADSV on its site. In turn, the NHCADSV refers victims to its own attorneys: David Vicianzo/Nixon Peabody; Shaheen & Gordon. Then these attorneys sue the State for millions for abuse suffered by their clients at YDC under DCYF. The NHCADSV receives millions from DCYF and also helps control its messaging. We need transparency, not obfuscation and sensationalist lies.
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