Allenstown News : sex offender

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.

Hooksett schools set sex offender policy

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:21:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Hooksett School Board has adopted new policies that would provide better notification of and protection against sex offenders living in the town.

School faculty and staff will now be told where sex offenders reside. While they will not be able to disseminate the information to parents, they will be able to use it for security.

Changes were made to existing policies regarding visitors, volunteers and early release of students from school to protect students against predators.

A team of school officials, teachers and community members worked on the policy changes over the past year, prompted by a citizen’s concern that a registered sex offender was bringing some Underhill students to school.

The third and final reading into the record, which is required in the adoption process, took place at the School Board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Any volunteers having unsupervised contact with students already undergo criminal background checks, but wording was added into the volunteer policy to extend it to unsupervised access to the school as a whole. It is also now clearly states in the policy that no registered sex offenders can volunteer at schools.

“This is just to make sure that it’s very explicit,” said School Board Chairman Joanne McHugh. “Sometimes things are not stated and people think that they’re obvious,” adding the change doesn’t mean sex offenders were permitted to be school volunteers previously.

Visitors to any Hooksett schools will now be required to say why they’re visiting, in addition to the old policy’s requirements, which were to sign and out and be identified as visitors.

They will not be required to have background checks, McHugh said, unless they have direct interaction with students.

The committee working on the policy changes sought advice from the Hooksett Police Department and state Rep. David Hess to make sure the changes go as far as possible without compromising any state laws.

The changes also include the district’s promise to release a newsletter at the beginning of each school year notifying parents of any updates in sex offender laws and policies, and directing them to the state’s sex offender Web site: www.egov. nh.gov/nsor.

According to the Web site, 12 people convicted of sex offenses against children reported living in Hooksett.

Parents put on guard - Police warn against sexual predator

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:38:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Allenstown police have stepped up patrols after some “credible information” has sparked “serious concerns for kids walking to school,” said Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

Mulholland said he couldn’t discuss the specific threat, but said it related to an individual registered as a sex offender who’s not on the public registry maintained by state police. He said police apprised local schools of the situation on the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 8, and urged school staff and parents to take precautions not to allow students to walk alone to and from school.

Pembroke Academy Headmaster Michael Reardon said he heard of the threat from a parent on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 9.

“I thought we were under a terrorist attack because I hadn’t seen the news reports,” he said.v

Reardon said he’d heard a “sexual predator” who favored 8-year-old to 14-year-old girls had recently come to Allenstown.

“How is this different from the 30, 40 or 50 miscreants that we have among us now?” he asked. “I’m still not sure how it’s different.”v

Reardon said he knew little about the specifics of the situation.

“We really didn’t have any idea who this person is, or what he looks like,” he said.

SAU 53 Superintendent Tom Haley said each of Allenstown’s schools reviewed everyday safety procedures after police notified the district. He said letters announcing the district’s knowledge of the situation, along with some suggestions for student safety, were going home with all Allenstown students on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

“We’re really not aware of what the threat is,” he said. “We’re talking about some sort of sexual predator and someone who’s new to the area.”

There are currently six Allenstown residents listed on the state’s public registry of sex offenders. Four of those six were convicted of felonious sexual assault with a victim under 13 years old. The other two were convicted of felonious sexual assault of someone under 16 years old, and with an age difference of more than three years.

Mulholland said there are far more sex offenders registered in Allenstown than are listed on the public registry.

“There’s a far greater percentage who are not on the public list,” he said.

As of press time, police were still increasing foot and vehicle patrols in the downtown Allenstown area, Mulholland said. He urged parents to accompany students to and from school, said students on foot should stay in groups, and also said students who normally walk to school should try to take the bus.