Hooksett Banner : Crime

Neighbors miss promised officer

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:40:00 GMT

Neighbors of a convicted child rapist whose house is within feet of a school bus stop say their concerns are falling on deaf ears.

Gayle Gillespie says there was no police officer patrolling the bus stop on Monday, Sept. 28 -- something a police captain said would happen every day at the previous Town Council meeting on Sept. 23.

“Don’t come out and tell the public you’re going to send a school resource officer out here, and now say that you’re not going to do it,” Gillespie said. “You wonder why everyone’s so upset.”

Gillespie’s neighbor, Joel Dutton, 45, of 24 Dundee Ave., was convicted in 1999 of aggravated felonious sexual assault of a child, police and court records said. He was arrested again Sept. 18 for allegedly molesting a 7-year-old girl and was released from jail to await trial.

“A police officer definitely told her there would be one there today, but there wasn’t,” said Gillespie’s boyfriend, Steve Hanson. “I’m not too happy about that.”

Despite his words at the council meeting, police Capt. Paul Cecilio said on Sept. 28 a school resource officer would patrol the bus stop as often as possible, but not every day.

“There was no (police) car there this morning,” Cecilio said, adding that the school resource officer took the day off and the patrol supervisor might have been unaware of the bus stop routine.

“He should have ended it with ‘when available,’” Police Chief Stephen Agrafiotis said. “We can’t guarantee somebody being there at a specific time.”

Gillespie and several neighbors addressed the Town Council on Sept. 23 to push for an ordinance that would restrict where convicted sex offenders can live. The town administrator said legal counsel advised against such an ordinance because similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional.

Town Councilor David Boutin, who is also a state representative, filed legislation the following day in an effort to give communities more freedom in notifying residents about convicted sex offenders. Since then, police records show Gillespie called police on Saturday, Sept. 26, reporting several children, including the molestation victim, were seen going inside Dutton’s house. Police investigated the call and said Dutton was not home at the time, meaning nothing illegal occurred.

“We verified he was at an address in Manchester at the time,” Cecilio said. The children were apparently visiting family members who live with Dutton, police said.

“Why did we waste our time at Town Hall?” Gillespie asked. “They’re letting everyone slip through the cracks.”

Cecilio said the police department doesn’t have the resources to patrol the same bus stop every day. He also said the resource officer routinely patrols all school bus stops in town at random to look out for suspicious activity.

“We can’t put a car there every day for the entire school year,” he said. “For a long-range goal, we’re hoping the school can move the bus stop.”

David Ross, vice chairman of the Town Council, said having a police officer at the same bus stop every day is not a solution to the problem.

“When that was stated, there were a few of us that looked at each other,” Ross said. “I don’t see that as being a viable solution. Are we supposed to have an officer at all the bus stops?”

Town Councilor Michael Pischetola, a former Manchester police captain, said enhanced notification of where sex offenders live, similar to a city-wide phone alert system that Manchester has, would be a step in the right direction.

“This town isn’t that big. Manchester is like 20 times bigger than Hooksett,” Pischetola said. “Things like that are used for snow emergencies, but there’s a whole host of things you could do.”

Ross said he would like the schools to provide a map to parents on where sex offenders reside. Hanson, who now says he plans to work with Boutin on his legislation, says the schools provide similar notifications already but would support the map idea.

Rapist prompts notification bill

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:34:00 GMT

BY DAN O'BRIEN

State Rep. David Boutin has filed legislation at the State House that would allow police departments more freedom to notify residents when convicted sex offenders move to town.

Boutin filed the bill on Thursday, Sept. 24, in response to a Town Council meeting a day earlier that was filled with parents upset that a convicted child rapist was released from jail after his arrest the week before for molesting another child.

“Most people don’t have at the top of their to-do list, ‘Tonight before I go to bed, I’m going to check the sex offender Web site,’” said Boutin, who is also a town councilor and is running for State Senate as a Republican. “It’s not something people think about and it’s probably something people block out.”

At the Town Council meeting, Tracy Curtis spoke on behalf of several people who live near Joel Dutton, 45, at 24 Dundee Ave., the convicted rapist who was released from jail on personal recognizance after his child molestation arrest Sept. 18. Curtis asked the council to adopt a town-wide ordinance that restricts convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, playgrounds and other locations children tend to congregate.

“Our community has been in outrage this week,” Curtis said.

One of the neighbors’ concerns was that Dutton lives about 100 feet from a school bus stop and Lambert Park at the intersection of Merrimack Street. The Hooksett Police Department said it has asked the school resource officer to stand at the bus stop every morning and afternoon while Dutton is free awaiting trial.

A Banner correspondent did not see a police officer at the bus stop as children exited the bus on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 22, while Dutton gave an interview from his home to a television reporter. However, Lt. Troy Cline said the SRO wasn’t asked to stand at the bus stop until Wednesday, Sept. 23, and has been going there since.

Town Administrator Carol Granfield said she sought advice of legal counsel and was advised against such sex offender residency restriction. In Dover, such an ordinance was lifted this summer after a district court judge ruled it was unconstitutional.

“The town clearly has the same concerns as you do,” Granfield told residents at the meeting. “The ordinance is not going to help because legally it’s unenforceable.”

Boutin says he’s working with the Department of Safety and Department of Justice to develop guidelines for his proposal. He says courts generally frown on ordinances that are considered punitive, so he’s taking another approach.

“If it’s considered protective, we have a better chance,” he said. “If it’s challenged, it will be upheld because it’s geared toward neighborhood protection. It’s about how we can establish notification procedures that are effective and legal.”

Boutin says he’s contacted a representative from the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union who’s agreed to work with him on the proposal.

“I wouldn’t say that she’s supporting it but she understands there’s a problem and has agreed to work with me,” he said.

Several other state representatives have asked to co-sponsor the bill, he said.

At the Town Council meeting, Councilor David Ross suggested the town consider forming a class action lawsuit for the right to form sex offender residency restrictions if it wants to. The American Civil Liberties Union has said it’s working to challenge the ordinances.

“I think towns aren’t going to bat against the ACLU. This organization repeatedly goes against the will of the voters and I find that is a problem,” Ross said. “I think what we should do is enter into a type of class action. Perhaps maybe that would encourage other communities to band together.”

Since the meeting, the Town of Hooksett’s official Web site has provided a link to the state’s sex offender registry Web site after the council unanimously passed a motion to do so.

Town councilors also endorsed the idea of neighborhoods to form crime watch groups. Before Dutton’s arrest, a similar proposal was made at the town’s Police Commission meeting. At the time, Commissioner Joanne McHugh expressed concern over burglaries and a mugging at the Hannaford supermarket parking lot that left a 70-year-old woman severely injured.

Woman says she was raped at motel

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:50:00 GMT

BY JENNIFER McDOWELL

Hooksett police picked up a registered sex offender for a reported sexual assault at a local motel on Monday, Nov. 5.

Eric Searles, 45, was arrested and charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault after police responded to a call from the Kozy 7 Motel on the Londonderry Turnpike at around 9:30 p.m.

Searles, whose last address is listed as 11 Welch Lane in Goffstown, according to the state’s sex offender registry, was convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault in Vermont in 1991 when he and a cohort raped a 14-year-old girl.

In this case, the victim was an adult Searles had met at the New Horizons homeless shelter in Manchester, said detective Sgt. Nick Pinardi.

Nenita Smith, who owns the Kozy 7 with her husband, said Searles had been a patron of the hotel before, but could not recall the last time he had been there.

Both Pinardi and Smith confirmed that Searles and the woman entered the hotel together.

Smith said Searles registered with identification at the front desk at sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., about an hour and a half before police arrived.

In August of 1989, according to a Vermont Supreme Court document, a 27-year-old Searles and Brad Tullgren, 19 at the time, raped a 14-year-old girl in a at the Marshfield Dam after driving around in search of a party.

Tullgren pleaded guilty to the crime, spent four months in jail with the rest of his time suspended, and testified against Searles, who spent several years incarcerated and attempted to appeal his conviction in 1992.

According to New Hampshire’s sexual assault laws, anyone convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault a second time is subject to a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.

Along with the sexual assault charge, police also charged Searles with felony possession of a crack pipe, the maximum sentence being 15 years in prison, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana, which carries a one year maximum sentence.

Searles is being held on $5,000 cash bail for the sexual assault charge and $1,000 for each of the drug charges at Merrimack County House of Corrections.

Pinardi said more charges may be added as it is suspected that Searles failed to register with the sex offender registry this year.

A probable cause hearing, held within 10 days of the crime, will determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the case, Pinardi said.

– Michelle Kim also contributed to this story.

Masked men invade home

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:12:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Robert Cyra of Hooksett, 74, said if his wolf-husky mix Malibu were still alive, the three masked men who entered his home in the wee hours of Saturday morning, Oct. 27, and robbed him of thousands in cash, jewelry and his 2004 Ford Explorer would not have gotten far.

Cyra is offering a $1,000 reward for tips that come through the police department that lead to the apprehension of a viable suspect.

The three men broke into the disabled veteran’s Prescott Heights home sometime before 1:30 a.m. by cutting a hole in a back porch screen, avoiding several motion-sensing lights, and kicking in the door leading into the main part of the house.

Cyra, who suffers from emphysema, was asleep when the men stormed into his bedroom. One of them sat on his chest while the other two ransacked his drawers and closet, repeatedly asking where the safe was. Judging from their voices, Cyra said, he believes the men were in their 30s.

“They shined the flashlights in my face and said they were police,” Cyra said. “The police do not wear masks. The police show themselves.”

Attempting to throw them off, Cyra said he would have a heart attack and asked for his nebulizer, which one of the men retrieved.

The men carried out a safe containing a cash inheritance of about $50,000, pieces of diamond and gold jewelry, uncirculated coins, Cyra’s G.I. Bill, the deed to his home, and his last will and testament, Cyra said.

“They were after money, jewelry, anything they could sell for dope,” Cyra said, adding that one of them mistakenly called another by name.

The three men also took hundreds of dollars and the keys to the tan Explorer – which he just purchased in March – from his wallet, plus his sleeping pills and post-traumatic stress medication, as well as his Air Force ring and dog tags, Cyra said.

The men left other medications behind, including his blood pressure pills.

“They knew which ones to take,” he said.

Cyra phoned police after the men left, who responded at 1:42 a.m. according to a police statement.

Detective Jake Robie of the Hooksett Police Department said this appears to be an isolated incident.

“We do not believe it to be a random act,” Robie said during a phone call on Monday, Oct. 28. “We have some leads we’re following up on, but nothing we can give out at this time.”

Cyra also said he has some idea of who might have “set him up,” adding that a neighbor reported seeing three men running through Cyra’s yard a few weeks prior to the break in.

“I have a good idea. I could be wrong. I hope I am,” he said.

While he owns a pistol, Cyra said it was in the drawer of a night stand that he could not reach without attracting attention.

“That night I had a hunch to put it on top, but I didn’t,” he said.

Cyra said he moved into the house five years ago to get away from Manchester, where that home was robbed of valuable antiques, pottery and pistols.

“I like this place. There are some beautiful homes around here,” Cyra said, adding that he didn’t expect such a thing to happen in his quiet residential neighborhood.

He added that the Hooksett Police Department is doing all it can to catch the three suspects.

“I heard these guys are pretty sharp out here,” said Cyra, adding that the police were diligent at the scene and have been following up with him regularly.

Cyra said he is most upset about the stolen deed, G.I. Bill and will, adding that he has been generous with the inheritance when family and friends fell on hard times.

“I made a promise to help people if I could because I know what it is to have no money,” Cyra said.

The Hooksett Police Department is appealing to the public for any information regarding the case.

Anyone who has seen the stolen tan Explorer, New Hampshire license plate number 1013, or with credible information about the case is asked to call the department at 624-1560.

Cooper sentence reduced

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:38:00 GMT

BY RYAN O'CONNOR

Melanie Cooper will only serve half of her original sentence.

After Cooper pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension, a felony charge, in the investigation of Eric Windhurst’s 1985 murder of her stepfather, Danny Paquette of Hooksett, she was sentenced, in December, to three to six years in prison.

But after a three-judge panel reviewed her case, at the request of Cooper, her sentence was reduced to 15 to 30 months, according to published reports.

Cooper met with the judges on June 15 and the panel made its decision on Friday, June 22.

Cooper, 37, has been serving her sentence at Goffstown’s state women’s prison since December and will be eligible for parole in March.

“Melanie appreciates the careful review conducted by the sensory panel in the reduction of her sentence,” said Cooper’s lawyer, Paul McDonough.

Eric Windhurst, Cooper’s high school classmate, is serving a 15- to 36-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2006.

Cooper testified against him and according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin, the prosecutor in the case, Windhurst couldn’t have been brought to justice without her assistance.

Still, Superior Court Judge Robert Lynn went against the state’s recommendation of a five-year suspended sentence, instead sentencing her to a three to six year prison sentence.

But prior to Cooper’s meeting with the panel, Strelzin said the state would stand by its original recommendation.

“It was in recognition, primarily, of her cooperation in the case that allowed us to solve the 20-year old unsolved murder,” he said. “We also considered who she was at the time, and a lack of criminal history and what she’s done with her life since.”

Cooper had been living out of state with her husband and five children, and had lied to police during prior investigations.

She claimed she was with Windhurst, who was 17 years old at the time he shot and killed Paquette. She was 15 years old.

Cooper told Windhurst that Paquette had sexually assaulted her, but said she was unaware Windhurst would kill her stepfather.

McDonough said the panel ruled Cooper had nothing to do with the homicide.

Death after grad – Hooksett man found beaten badly after Central ceremony

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:39:00 GMT

BY SUSAN WARE

A brutal dusk assault on Thursday, June 14, left a 20-year-old Hooksett man fighting for his life. The next day he succumbed to the injuries from the beating while being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

According to Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell, Ryan Carlson was assaulted at approximately 8:20 p.m. He was found unconscious in an alley on Franklin Street near the Getaway Lounge. Police responded to a call regarding Carlson just 10 minutes later.

Authorities are now trying to piece together what happened that night.

Their preliminary assumption is that a fight between two groups of young men started brewing at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

Carlson was at the arena to see his sister Christine graduate from Central High School. His sister had become ill and did not attend the ceremony, but Carlson had arrived at the arena unaware that his family wasn’t there. It is believed that Carlson left the arena before U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton took the stage.

What happened after that is a mystery, and so is the cause of death.

Morrell said on June 18 that the Attorney General’s Office was waiting for a neurological autopsy to be performed and that the cause of death cannot be determined until those results are in. She stressed that this type of autopsy will take at least two weeks, probably longer.

Morrell would not say what types of injury Carlson sustained, simply reiterating that there was neurological testing that needed to be done.

She did say that, despite the cause of death being undetermined at this time, meaning it has not been ruled a homicide, her office is still investigating his death will full force.

“We are working every angle to figure out what happened to Ryan Carlson. We are working closely with his family too, to help them deal with the, homicide process,” she said.

Carlson’s Myspace pages say that he was a bass player and professed a love for music and skateboarding.

One of his Myspace pages has a photograph of him when he was much younger, maybe middle-school age.

The title to the page is sadly proving prophetic. It appears that Carlson wrote in January 2006 “You thought I was gone?” Then: “I’m Not Going Newwhere Guys” and “i’m sorry god, i didn’t mean it.”

Morrell said her office is looking for anyone who might have seen anything that night, starting in the Verizon Wireless Arena, on Elm Street, Franklin Street or streets in between. She is asking that people contact her office 271-3658 or the Manchester Police Department 668-8711.

Crime forces increase in budget, says chief

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:38:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Citing more numerous and complex crimes, many committed by nonresidents of Hooksett, police officials said they couldn’t comply with the Hooksett Town Council’s request to bring forth a zero-dollar-increase budget.

“It’s a growing department in a growing town,” said Hooksett Police Commission Chairman David Gagnon. “It wouldn’t be responsible for us to bring a budget that doesn’t meet our needs.”

Said Police Chief Stephen Agrafiotis, “It’s our job to bring in a true budget.”

Agrafiotis and the police commission have now conceded nearly $240,000 of their original proposed operating budget, after councilors earlier this month expressed dissatisfaction with the original proposal.

The department’s proposed budget is now just short of $2,586,000, and is a 1.8 percent increase over the current police budget.

One of the biggest concessions, said Agrafiotis, was wages for two full-time officers. The current police roster is 26, and the cut likely means police will only be able to fill one more position. The cut allowed some other proposed costs like fuel, overtime and training to be reduced, Agrafiotis said. But police officials said the budget cuts may have their own costs.

The department has dealt with increasingly difficult cases, said Agrafiotis, like the recent bust of a house transformed into a marijuana-growing laboratory and a bank theft investigation that spanned several states. Such cases, he said, require man hours for investigation. Another thing concerning police is that some 75 percent of the arrests in Hooksett, based on two months’ worth of data collected at the end of last year by the department’s prosecution department, are of people who don’t live in town.

Agrafiotis said criminals have been making their way north from Massachusetts, and have been spilling over from Manchester in recent years.

“The crimes you have these days are usually spread over a wider geographical area,” said Agrafiotis.

Again, he said, that translates into more footwork for local investigators.

“We don’t want to find ourselves in a position like Manchester where our quality of life is deteriorating,” said Agrafiotis, “where you’re so far in the whole that you have to catch up.”

Agrafiotis and Gagnon also said they’re worried about development in the works, like several large residential complexes already approved by the town’s planning board. Agrafiotis said a new 24-hour Wal-Mart could put a strain on the overnight shift.

“At some point, this town’s going to have to face the facts and get those (police) bodies,” Agrafiotis said.

The police budget isn’t yet set in stone.

“It’s still got to go through the budget committee,” said town council chairman and council representative to that committee. “They’re not really known for doing any increases.”

Voters will also have the opportunity to modify the police budget at the April 7 deliberative session of Town Meeting.