Executive Councilor Janet Stevens has been chasing the Berlin Police Department through 91-A for details on domestic violence protocols followed or not followed by the police prior to Marisol Fuentes’ murder by her husband.
The Berlin Police Department is denying access to records, citing privacy issues for Marisol Fuentes. Executive Councilor Janet Stevens is now asking the AG for help.
Here’s where it gets weird.
Magistrate Stephanie Johnson was forced to resign for mishandling the Marisol Fuentes case.
BUT Stephanie Johnson was vetted to be a magistrate by the Judicial Selection Committee in December 2024. New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice and former AG Gordon MacDonald approved her. She was the Assistant County Attorney in Rockingham County and had previously served as an Assistant AG in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
On the Judicial Selection Commission was Lyn Schollett, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence.
According to news reporting by In Depth New Hampshire, Marisol Fuentes “begged” the court to protect her from her husband who killed her.
In previous cases, the courts (judges) have extended sovereign immunity to non-profits working with them (eg CASA NH in a case in which grandparents sued because their granddaughters were sexually abused during a parental visit supervised by a CASA worker).
“Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson ruled the judicial immunity that protects a judge from legal action extends to CASA-NH, because its volunteers act as an arm of the court by advocating for the interests of abused children. Abramson explained that CASA’s role in recruiting, training and supervising volunteers, known as “guardians ad litem,” entitles the organization to the same immunity protections.”
But if the magistrate has resigned, it would appear that sovereign immunity option for victims advocates working for a non-profit such as RESPONSE disappears because there is no judge to grant that protection.
Berlin Police have qualified immunity, and Berlin Police are resisting access to Right To Know regarding whether or not they provided Marisol Fuentes with access to services, etc under state protocols for domestic and sexual violence victims and under NH victims rights laws.
WHAT IF the Berlin Police Department is resisting 91-A to protect a mutual screw-up involving both the PD and RESPONSE in the absence of the magistrate who can’t extend sovereign immunity to the organization?
We don’t know what happened, but the NHCADSV hasn’t come out and said that victims’ advocates weren’t involved or called. All they have done is come out and demand more training. Yet the NHCADSV provides the training that police department personnel are required to attend.
The NHCADSV statement above appears to be a piece of crisis PR management by Lyn Schollett, the Executive Director of the NHCADSV, rather than a desire to look into what actually happened and question whether RESPONSE and its victim advocates failed protocols, as did the Berlin Police.
If the Berlin Police Department can publish a report on the failures, why can’t the local crisis center do the same, and what is the real reason for resistance to 91A? Is it fear that funding will dry up if the NHCADSV/RESPONSE failed as well?
Gracie Gato Podcast: How The NHCADSV Failed Marisol Fuentes
She went to court. She begged them to protect her. They didn’t.On July 6th, 2025, Marisol Fuentes was killed by her husband in Berlin, New Hampshire — after appearing before a court magistrate who set bail and sent him home to her.The magistrate resigned. But the questions didn’t leave with her.In this special edition of Gracie Gato’s Speakeasy, I’m pulling the thread on everything that came before, during, and after Marisol’s murder — and the institutions that are still not answering for it. 🔍 IN THIS EPISODE:▸ Who vetted and approved the magistrate who resigned — and who was sitting on that commission ▸ Why Berlin Police Department is blocking a Right to Know request from Executive Councilor Janet Stevens — citing privacy for a woman who is no longer alive ▸ The NH Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence’s response to this case — and why it raises more questions than it answers ▸ The crisis center that provides court advocates to domestic violence victims — and the silence around whether one was present for Marisol ▸ The sovereign immunity doctrine, what it means, and what happens when the magistrate who could grant it is gone ▸ The funding structures that give powerful nonprofits every incentive to manage optics over accountability https://gracieformermrsgato.substack….
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