Allenstown News : crime

Man held in Mass. for molesting three girls

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:07:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

A New Hampshire man accused of sexually molesting three girls in Allenstown in 2005 is fighting extradition from Worcester, Mass., where he was arrested on Oct. 15.

Clyde Dauphinee, 43, is being held at the Worcester County House of Corrections on $100,000 cash bail while local officials in Allenstown appeal to the secretary of state and the Governor’s Office to bring him back to New Hampshire to be tried for the sex crimes. The three victims, whose identities will not be released because of the nature of the crimes, were younger than 13 at the time of the incidents.

Each was previously known to the suspect. Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said it is unusual for a suspect to fight extradition under these circumstances.

The Police Department will now be forced to file a governor’s warrant to bring him back stateside, which requires signatures of the secretary of state and the governor of both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The process takes about 30 days, he said.

“Usually people just waive (extradition) because otherwise they would just be delaying the inevitable,” Mulholland said.

Dauphinee was arrested at 6:30 a.m. at a residence in Worcester, where police were forced to kick in the front door after he refused to answer. Mulholland said officers found the suspect hiding in a bedroom closet without any clothes on.

The arrest, which was aided by the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force, brought an end to the longtime search for the suspect, which began in 2006.

U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said the arrest brings closure to a case his office has been working on for a long time.

“We’ve had the case for a while since (Chief Mulholland) asked us to help him. The task force is a resource open to any local force or agency who has an outstanding felony warrant for a fugitive and we give high priority to sex offenders,” Monier said.

“One of our deputies discovered it was probable (Dauphinee) was in the Worcester area.”

All three sex crimes that Dauphinee has been accused of occurred in Allenstown in 2005 at his former home at 98 Main St.

Mulholland said that building is a brick multi-unit complex on the border of the Allenstown and Pembroke line that police officials often refer to as heartbreak hotel for the amount of criminal activity associated with the building. The suspect previously resided at Holiday Acres, a mobile home park in Allenstown, and was employed as a sales clerk at the Irving gas station on Route 3, across the street from the Police Department.

If convicted, Dauphinee will face seven to 15 years for each crime, with additional penalties because of the young ages of the victims, Mulholland said.

Eight arrested in heroin bust

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:31:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Allenstown and Pittsfield police busted a heroin ring after a long investigation that ended in the raiding of an Allenstown woman’s apartment on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

Police arrested eight people, including a family: two Pittsfield residents who were making runs from an Allenstown apartment back to Pittsfield, three people living in the apartment, and three teens facing marijuana possession charges who were also in the apartment when police entered.

A ninth person who allegedly also lives in the apartment is still being sought, said Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland. That person left before authorities hit the apartment.

Rose Watterson, 40, of 5 Whitten St., Apt. 5, was charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute, a Class A felony, and with falsifying evidence after she attempted to hide the drugs inside her body, said Mulholland.

Watterson was arraigned in the intensive care unit at Concord Hospital on Thursday, Aug. 21.

While in the holding cell at the Allenstown Police Department, as police were in the process of obtaining a body cavity search warrant, Watterson removed the 48 “bindles” of heroin she had concealed inside her body and swallowed them, causing her to become ill and start vomiting, Mulholland said. “It shows you how desperate people are because that could have killed her,” said Mulholland, if one of the plastic baggies containing the drugs had burst in her stomach.

Police seized about $5,000 worth of heroin from Watterson and four other suspects, said Mulholland.

“That’s a very small amount compared to what’s been going on there,” Mulholland said. “That’s about a third of a day’s activity.”

The investigation started several months ago. The raid and arrests involved the Pittsfield and Allenstown police departments, the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office, the Central New Hampshire Special Operations Unit, and the Attorney General’s Drug Task unit.

The apartment complex where Watterson lived is right across the street from Whitten Street Park, and the Allenstown Boys and Girls Club teen center.

Just before authorities entered the apartment, Suzanne Gross, 41, and Dennis Gross, 59, of 240 Dowboro Road in Pittsfield, had allegedly left the apartment with heroin. Surveillance officers observed the couple leaving the apartment, Mulholland said.

Pittsfield caught up with the Grosses and arrested them once they got into town. Suzanne Gross was charged with three felony counts of selling drugs and Dennis Gross was charged with transporting them, a misdemeanor.

At 9 p.m., about 40 police officers raided the Whitten Street apartment building from two different sides.

Along with Watterson, police arrested two other men who lived there with her: James Corriveau, 39, who was arrested on a felony heroin charge out of Massachusetts; and Kevin Folsom Sr., who was arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge.

Mulholland said Folsom is Watterson’s ex-husband and Corriveau is her current boyfriend.

Also arrested was the 19- year-old son of Watterson and Folsom who was living in the apartment, Kevin Folsom Jr., for possession of marijuana.

Police also arrested Brandon Millette, 18, of 36 Library St., Allenstown, and Daniel Millette, 17, of 56 Arlene St., Belmont, and charged them with marijuana possession.

Police believe the teens were operating their own pot business out of the home as well.

“It was like a department store. You went to one department and got one thing and went to the other department and got another thing,” Mulholland said.

This isn’t the first time Watterson has been arrested for drug activity, he said, adding she served time for heroin sale in the past.

This investigation was the result of anonymous tips from the Concord Crimeline, Mulholland said.

Subway shop robbed, two are arrested

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:24:00 GMT

By JENN McDOWELL

Two Manchester residents are being charged with robbing a Subway sandwich shop in Allenstown after a collaboration of police efforts in Allenstown, Hudson, and Nashua revealed that robbery was unrelated to a recent string of Subway robberies in the southern part of the state.

Phillip Rawnsley, 30, and Michelle Despres, 22, both of 390 South Main St. in Manchester, allegedly held up the Allenstown shop on Thursday, Dec. 27, at around 9:40 p.m. The two employees on duty at the time were forced to empty the cash register of $180, according to Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

The next day, Mulholland met with Nashua and Hudson police to determine whether the Allenstown robbery was connected to two Nashua Subway robberies, one that occurred later the same evening and another on Monday, Dec. 24, and a fourth Subway hit in Hudson shortly before the Allenstown robbery on Thursday.

Surveillance tapes from the Allenstown shop did not match the tapes and descriptions of the suspects in the three other robberies, Mulholland said. “At least the people that went inside the building were two separate people,” he said.

Despres and Rawnsley were being held at the Valley Street jail in Manchester for a recent city convenience store robbery when Mulholland said it was found that female foot impressions at the Allenstown Subway matched those of the convenience store robbery evidence.

Police interviewed Despres on Sunday, Dec. 30, at the Manchester Police Department and confronted her with the evidence match. It was determined Rawnsley was also involved in the Subway hit.

Rawnsley was also being held on felony possession of a firearm in an unrelated state police case, Mulholland said.

While the two have not yet been officially arrested, grand jury indictments will be filed and both Despres and Rawnsley will likely be arraigned the week of Monday, Jan. 7, he added. Rawnsley will be charged with armed robbery and Despres with accomplice to armed robbery.

Neither Rawnsley or Despres had prior knowledge of the three other Subway hits in Hudson and Nashua, Mulholland said.

“It was just a matter of convenience. They drove by, and it looked like a convenient place to hit,” he said, adding both suspects have lengthy prior sheets.

Three other suspects have been charged in connection with the robberies in Nashua and Hudson.

Meth lab maybe – Federal, local officials disagree what was happening at Allenstown trailer

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:25:00 GMT

BY SUSAN WARE

Federal agents are undecided whether the evidence found at 10 Edgewood Drive will confirm what local law enforcement believe, that a methamphetamine lab was operating in a run-down mobile home near Bear Brook State Park.

If proven to be a methamphetamine lab, this would be the first full-blown lab the state has seen.

Local law enforcement entered the Edgewood Drive home on July 27 because it was believed to be a methamphetamine lab.

But, according to Tony Pettigrew, the information officer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, only confirmed box labs have been found in New Hampshire, and his agency is still undecided as to what, if anything, was going on in that mobile home. A box lab is a personal use lab, where the entire lab can fit into a cardboard box and be easily carried.

Additionally, there has been no methamphetamine labs discovered in New England this year, box or otherwise.

“It is pretty significant that we are halfway through the year and not one confirmed meth lab has been discovered yet,” said Pettigrew.

Allenstown police were initially dispatched to the mobile home as the Olde Towne Homeowners co-operative park is in the process of evicting the owners, Waldo and Susan Brown. Waldo Brown is currently in prison for alcohol-related charges. Susan Brown currently lives at 264 Pinewood Road and gave police permission to enter the property.

The mobile home, which was said to be vacant, has had people coming and going, said Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland. He declined to elaborate on what brought officers to seek permission to enter the trailer.

Outside the trailer are piles of trash and debris, including several gas grills, large chemical barrels, glass tubing and what appears to be drug-making paraphernalia.

“Our agents, who have a lot of experience with meth labs, haven’t confirmed that it is a lab yet. It is still very much under investigation,” said Pettigrew. Evidence from the mobile home was sent to a state lab for examination.

But Mulholland is certain 10 Edgewood Drive was a methamphetamine lab operating in a dense neighborhood.

“Absolutely, what we uncovered up there was a meth lab,” said Mulholland.

Mulholland is waiting for grand jury indictments for “less than 10 local people,” he said, and it could take several weeks.

Linda Tomlinson, spokeswoman U.S. Attorney’s Office was hushed on the indictments.

“I can neither confirm or deny anything in regards to this matter,” said Tomlinson.

As for methamphetamine in New Hampshire, Pettigrew said it is more likely imported from another state than made here. And when a lab is uncovered, it is typically the box, personal-use type lab; so far, never a large operation.

“It is hard to say what draws certain drugs where, but so far New England has been fortunate not to have the problems other parts of the country have,” said Pettigrew.

Meth lab discovered

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:42:00 GMT

BY SUSAN WARE

A two-year investigation led local and federal law enforcement agencies to raid a mobile home in Allenstown, shutting down what appears to have been a methamphetamine lab.

“This is not over. It is just beginning,” said Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

According to Mulholland, he is waiting for a federal grand jury to hand down drug trafficking indictments on “less than 10 people.” Because the suspects will be facing federal charges, it had not been determined whether Allenstown police or U.S.
Marshals will make the arrests. Mulholland expects the federal indictments to take at least another week.

The mobile home at 10 Edgewood Drive had been vacant since June, but there has been activity there, said Mulholland.

Because the case is ongoing, he would not say how the lab was discovered.

The mobile home is owned by Susan and Waldo Brown. Waldo Brown is currently incarcerated for a fourth DWI offense and for being a habitual offender. Susan Brown now lives at 264 Pinewood Road and gave police permission to enter the trailer on Friday, July 27.

Outside the trailer are piles of trash and debris, including several gas grills, large chemical barrels, glass tubing and other drug-making paraphernalia.

The Olde Towne Homeowners Co-op that owns the mobile home park near Bear Brook State Park is currently in the process of evicting the Browns, said Mulholland.

Neighbors of 10 Edgewood Drive declined to comment, saying that this incident was giving their park a bad reputation and that they wanted it to go away.

While other parts of the country seem to be shutting down methamphetamine labs on a regular basis, New Hampshire has had only a handful.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, a methamphetamine lab has not been discovered in New Hampshire since 2003, when a single lab was found. Over the last five years, there have been five methamphetamine labs discovered in the Granite State.