Windham News : crime

Windham police seek bank robber

Salem Editor — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:36:00 GMT

Police are searching for a man who robbed a Citizens Bank on Indian Rock Road and fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The suspect, described as a white male in his mid-20s, 6 feet tall with a slim build and bright blue eyes, handed the bank teller a note demanding the money at about 9:15 a.m. Police said he did not display a weapon during the robbery.

“Only one teller knew there was a robbery going on. She was understandably shaken up,” said Windham officer Carl Wagner. “She acted according to her training.”

He described her as a “composed and good witness.”

State and local police continue to search for the suspect, described as wearing a gray Northface zippered sweatshirt with no hood, jeans and a gray knit cap with a dark stripe around the edge. He was last seen leaving Citizens Bank heading toward a McDonald’s restaurant across the street by the Interstate 93 Exit 3 northbound on-ramp. Police said the bank robber took a hard left back behind the bank and moved parallel to Route 111 West while in the woods.

Bank officials told the authorities that the money he was handed included a dye pack which should have exploded within a short distance of the bank. Police said later that day that they had located the dye pack along the northbound onramp and they believe the suspect may have the red dye on their body and clothing.

A K-9 unit with the state police tracked the robber’s trail to the former Dunkin’ Donuts building about a quarter of a mile west of the bank. Police said the suspect may have had a vehicle already parked there or he may have been given a ride, although authorities believe there was only one person involved in the robbery.

Police said they believe the suspect headed north on I-93 in an unknown vehicle.

Windham police will continue to investigate the crime along with the state police and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department. Other area police departments had also been made aware of the robbery. While the FBI office in Portsmouth was also alerted to the situation, they will not be participating in the investigation.

This is the first bank robbery in Windham in three years, Wagner said. The last one occurred at the same Citizens Bank and had recently been solved.

Two arrested in Windham convenience store robbery

Salem Editor — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:51:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Pelham police have arrested two suspects in connection with the Sept. 8 armed robbery of Cousin’s Convenience store on Main Street.

Kristopher Boissonneault, 22, of 101 Mammoth Road in Pelham, was charged with armed robbery after admitting to police during an interview that he entered the store brandishing a knife and robbed the clerk. He also faces a felony cocaine possession charge.

During questioning, Boissonneault revealed Matthew Perrotti, 18, of 116 Bridge St. in Pelham was the driver of their getaway vehicle. Perrotti was charged with criminal liability for the conduct of another.

On Monday, Sept. 8, according to a police affidavit prepared by Pelham police Sgt. Thomas O’Donnell, Boissonneault allegedly drove his silver Ford Explorer to Cousin’s and dropped off Perrotti, who went into the store to see who was working and how the cash register could be accessed. After making a small purchase, Perrotti left the store and met Boissoneault where he’d parked the Explorer, at the Highland Avenue apartments behind the store.

Shortly after, Boissoneault allegedly entered the store wearing black clothes and a gray ski mask, threatening the clerk with a long knife thought to be a machete and demanding the cash she was preparing for deposit, O’Donnell wrote in the affidavit. The clerk handed over a bag containing a large amount of money, and Boissonneault tried to open the cash drawer, according to police. When he couldn’t get it open, he grabbed several rolls of quarters from the counter and fled the store on foot and headed behind the building toward the apartment complex.

As he stood outside the store, Boissonneault removed his mask in plain view of the clerk, who was able to describe the suspect to police.

Police arrived at Cousin’s at around 3:40 p.m., and were able to track the suspect’s scent back to the apartments. The track was lost in the parking lot. They also found some rolls of quarters and the mask along the path Boissonneault allegedly took.

Police interviewed apartment tenants, one of whom said he saw the silver Ford Explorer exiting the parking lot, according to the affidavit.

While investigators were contemplating possible suspects, O’Donnell remembered that he and another detective were conducting surveillance for drug activity in the Cousin’s parking lot when a silver Ford Explorer drove through the parking lot, but did not stop or park before tearing out at a high speed.

The detectives requested a license plate number check, and a nearby marked unit was able to identify the vehicle’s owner as Boissoneault.

On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the clerk was asked to pick the suspect out from a photo lineup, and easily identified Boissonneault, according to court documents. Police performed some more drug-related surveillance on Boissonneault before issuing a warrant for his arrest. He was stopped while driving at 5:09 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, and taken to the station for having cocaine in his possession.

When police questioned him about the robbery, Boissonneault allegedly admitted to doing it and gave up Perrotti as his driver, according to the affidavit.

“The police did very good,” said the store clerk. “Now we are going to have security cameras.”

Pathik Patel, one of the store’s managers, said security at the store is going to be a lot tighter now that they are setting up the cameras and have installed a panic button.

The store has been in business for about 10 months, he said.

“We thought this was a safe town, but I guess nothing’s too safe,” Patel said, adding the clerk was very sharp to have the presence of mind to remember the suspect and identify him from photos.

Patel said he is pleased with the Pelham Police Department’s thorough investigation. He added while the robbery was traumatizing for them, it’s going to be equally hard for the families of Boissonneault and Perrotti.

“I wish it didn’t happen,” he said. “They’re young kids. You don’t want their lives to end up this way.”

Both Boissonneault and Perrotti had probable cause hearings scheduled in Salem District Court for Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m.

Windham town employee arrested for sex assault

Salem Editor — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:39:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

A Windham town employee has been arrested for an alleged sexual assault after the victim reported the crime to a victim’s advocate.

Robert Dobson, 55, of 5 Princeton St., Windham, was arrested the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 19, Windham Police Chief Gerald Lewis said.

Dobson was charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault for the incident, which court records alleged happened between July and September 2008.

Dobson works at the town’s transfer station/recycling center, and has for about 20 or 25 years, said David Poulson, the station’s manager. Poulson would not comment further on Dobson’s arrest.

According to court records, Windham police Sgt. Wendy Foley met with a guidance counselor at Windham Middle School on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The guidance counselor, identified in court records as Julie Lichtmann, told Foley a student had reported being sexually assaulted by Dobson.

Linda Wilmoth of the state’s Division of Children, Youth and Families interviewed the victim at the Child Advocacy Center in Derry, court records show, on Wednesday, Sept. 17.

During that interview, the victim described the alleged assault in detail, naming Dobson as the assailant.

At their weekly meeting on Monday, Sept. 22, the town’s Board of Selectmen discussed Dobson’s arrest in nonpublic session as a personnel matter. Police and town officials have released little else about the arrest.

After his arraignment, Dobson was released on $25,000 personal recognizance bail. He will appear in Salem District Court on Wednesday, Oct. 8, for a probable cause hearing.

Windham man charged in sex assault on boy

Salem Editor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:23:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

A Windham man is facing a charge of aggravated felonious sexual assault after a 17-year-old boy told his therapist the man had sexually assaulted him twice, the last time being seven years ago in Londonderry.

Registered sex offender Richard D. Bauchman, 63, of 38 First St. in Windham waived a probable cause hearing in Derry District Court scheduled for Monday, Sept. 8. The case will now proceed to Superior Court.

A Child Protection Service representative called Londonderry Police Juvenile Services Detective Donald Laduke on March 13, reporting the boy had described the Londonderry assault to his therapist, according to an affidavit.

Several days later in an interview, the boy related his story to a forensic interviewer from the Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County in Derry.

The boy said he and Bauchman were riding down trails near the old railroad bed. Police later identified the area as immediately next to Tru-Green Chemlawn at 15 Delta Drive in Londonderry through the victim’s description of trucks he could see in a nearby parking lot.

The alleged assault occurred when the victim was 9 or 10 years old, and lasted about 20 minutes, the victim told investigators.

Laduke and Windham police Detective Daniel Clark went to Bauchman’s home on June 10 and asked him to answer some questions.

According to the affidavit, Bauchman told Laduke and Clark several times that he didn’t remember the incident in question. Bauchman then said he was “99 percent sure” he hadn’t committed the assault, the affidavit said.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office authorized a taped phone conversation between the victim and Bauchman. During the conversation, Bauchman expressed his concern about authorities finding out about the incident.

“They would arrest me and put me in jail for 30 years,” Bauchman allegedly said in the taped conversation.

Bauchman also told the victim that since the information came from his therapist, authorities would not be able to prove anything.

The victim then asked Bauchman why he did it, to which Bauchman allegedly replied, “I don’t know. I wish it never happened, to tell you the truth. I’m sorry I did it, but I wish, you know, I wish I could go back in time and say, you know, it didn’t happen.”

Bauchman was convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault in April 1988 in Sonoma County Court in California. The victim in that case was under the age of 13.

Bauchman was arraigned in Derry District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 2, is being held at the Rockingham County Jail on $50,000 cash bail.

Windham knife fight ends in two arrests

Salem Editor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:59:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Police said an alcohol-fueled argument led to a motel room stabbing on Rockingham Road that left two people hospitalized with knife wounds and another two under arrest.

Leo Martin Jr., 41, and Diane Batchelor, 31, both of Salem, were taken into custody on assault charges after police responded to a report of a shooting – later found to be erroneous – in Room 115 of the Manor Motel at 1:56 p.m., Thursday, July 24.

Authorities found Joseph Young, 48, and Maureen Cobbett, 50, injured with multiple knife wounds.

Martin and Batchelor fled the scene in a Ford Ranger pickup truck and were later caught and arrested by Salem police.

Young and Cobbett were treated for their injuries by Windham and Salem fire department personnel and transported to the Parkland Medical Center in Derry.

Cobbett suffered a severe cut on her thumb and Young had two stab wounds.

On two separate occasions earlier in the day, police responded to the same location after receiving reports of an assault and loud noises.

At the time of the second altercation, Batchelor was already under investigation for assaulting Cobbett after the couples began arguing earlier in the day.

Man with foot fetish faces assault charges in Windham

Salem Editor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:20:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

After Windham police received an anonymous tip, a man suspected of assaulting female yoga and fitness instructors has been caught.

Eric Henson, 31, of 116 Barretts Hill Road, Hudson, was arraigned on three charges of simple assault in Salem District Court on Tuesday, July 22.

Henson admitted to placing the feet of his female victims against his groin while they demonstrated a stretching movement. He told them he was a karate instructor looking to open a business in town, police said.

All three Windham assaults took place in the neighboring Commons and Village Green plazas on Route 111.

Windham police Sgt. Michael Caron said Henson admitted to the alleged Windham acts during questioning, adding Henson is suspected of similar crimes on about a dozen other occasions in other New Hampshire towns as well as in his former town of Wakefield, Mass.

“I think this individual certainly has a problem that needs to be addressed,” Caron said after Henson’s arraignment.

Caron said Henson moved to town on or around Friday, June 27. The first assault was Tuesday, July 1, at the Windham Pilates and Wellness Center at Village Green.

In that incident, the pilates instructor was showing Henson some moves after he entered the studio and said he wanted to learn some exercises to speed up his recovery from an injury. She pulled away and confronted Henson verbally, and he left.

The next two assaults were on Thursday, July 17, at The Commons Plaza at approximately 5:30 p.m. Police responded to a call from a woman in the parking lot who said a man had approached her and said he was a karate teacher and wanted to show her a move. According to a police affidavit, Henson also told her she had nice legs and feet.

Henson allegedly said he had to grab her leg and foot to do it. He then placed her foot against his crotch, according to police.

While police were dealing with that call, another woman who works at Yoga Sanctuary in the same plaza told officers that a man with a similar description had entered the studio and asked for massage advice. Flynn demonstrated the massage, and Henson allegedly took her foot and put it against his crotch.

Caron said an anonymous caller told police the culprit was Henson. Investigators were able to reach Henson through his work cell phone around noon on Monday, July 21, and asked him to come to the station for an interview.

Henson came to the station about an hour and a half later, and admitted to committing the Windham assaults in addition to nine to 15 others in other New Hampshire and Massachusetts towns.

“(Henson) claimed he would use the same ‘stretching’ routine to get women close to him. He stated that he has a foot fetish and that it has become a problem.

He admitted that this all started about two to three years ago, but it has been an issue for about year,” the affidavit said.

Caron said Henson admitted to having a problem, and seemed remorseful towards the end of the interview.

Although Henson is suspected of many more similar crimes, most of the victims did not inform their local law enforcement agencies, Caron said.

Windham police do know of one similar incident that took place in a public park in Wakefield, Mass.

Salem District Court Judge John Korbey set Henson’s bail at $25,000 cash or surety. Prosecutors at the arraignment argued Henson had close ties to Massachusetts and was a flight risk.

Assault reported at Windham yoga center

Salem Editor — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:33:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Windham Police are still looking for a man who reportedly assaulted a yoga instructor after she showed him some yoga moves.

The woman, an employee of Windham Pilates and Wellness Center, reported the alleged assault to police shortly after the incident occurred at around 7 p.m. on Monday, July 1, said Windham Police Chief Gerald Lewis.

She described the suspect as about 5 feet, 10 inches tall with blond hair, possibly in his early 30s. He was wearing a white T-shirt, a gold chain and either jeans or khaki pants at the time of the incident.

Contrary to news reports already published about the incident, Lewis said, the woman was not a victim of a sexual assault in the accepted sense of the term.

“There was an assault that took place that was sexual in nature. There was no rape that took place, and no attempted rape,” said Lewis, adding the assault was of very short duration.

According to the woman’s account, the man entered the studio and asked the woman about some physical therapy exercises he could do for an injury he had sustained.

The assault took place as the yoga instructor demonstrated some exercises. The perpetrator fled upon being confronted verbally with his inappropriate behavior, Lewis said.

The pilates studio was open at the time of the incident, as were several other businesses in the Village Green plaza on Route 111, where the studio is located.

Nobody who was working in any of those businesses saw the suspect, Lewis said, nor was anyone able to provide police with the description of a vehicle in which he may have fled.

Upon taking the report, the Windham Police contacted the police departments in surrounding towns as well as the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department with a description of the suspect. No leads have been generated thus far, Lewis said, and no similar incidents had occurred in other towns.

Lewis said they are still hoping to identify the man. Anyone with any information regarding the incident should call the Windham Police Department at 434-5577.

Two Windham men nabbed again

Salem Editor — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:27:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Two Windham men who were already facing charges for an attempted robbery in June were arrested again for assaulting a Salem man the night before they were to appear in court on their previous charges.

Salem police arrested Thomas Winward, 17, and Shawn Mahoney, 18, both of Windham, and charged both with simple assault and drug possession on the evening of Monday, July 7, after they allegedly entered the Salem apartment of Nick Pettiford and attacked him.

According to Salem police Capt. Shawn Patten, Pettiford’s girlfriend was at the apartment when Mahoney and Winward showed up at the apartment to confront Pettiford about some guns and a video game they believed Pettiford stole from Winward’s home.

Winward and Mahoney allegedly attacked Pettiford while inside the apartment, at which point Pettiford’s girlfriend reported the incident to police.

“When the girlfriend called police, the two suspects fled. (Pettiford) went after them and got a bat from his car,” Patten said.

When police arrived, Patten said, Pettiford was swinging a bat at Winward and Mahoney but did not land any blows. Pettiford suffered minor injuries to his face and head area in the attack. Neither Mahoney nor Winward was injured.

Both Winward and Mahoney were carrying about an ounce of marijuana each, Patten said, and were also charged with possession.

No charges are being filed against Pettiford at this point, said Patten, adding an investigation into the claims that Pettiford had stolen guns and a video game from Winward has turned up nothing.

Winward and Mahoney were two parts of a trio of midnight prowlers who were arrested when they tried to break into a Pelham Road home on Sunday, June 1. Daniel Smith, 19, of Salem rounded out the band of would-be bandits.

Despite the July 7 arrest, both Mahoney and Winward appeared in Salem District Court July 8 for probable cause hearings for the attempted robbery and to be arraigned on the new charges. Smith waived his probable cause hearing.

The Pelham Road incident resulted in charges of criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, prowling, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of alcohol.

During that arrest, all three suspects were extremely uncooperative and combative with arresting officers, Patten said. One officer was actually injured in the process of trying to subdue the three men, sustaining a knee injury that sent him to Parkland Medical Center for treatment. Officers had to Taser Mahoney at the time because of his out-of-control resistance, Patten said.

By the end of their day in court, probable cause was found to prosecute both Winward and Mahoney for their alleged roles in the attempted burglary. Bail was set for the new charges at $10,000 cash or surety for both Winward and Mahoney. They will appear next in court on Wednesday, Aug. 20, for their trial on the new charges.

Windham marine hurt in crash five days after return from Iraq

Salem Editor — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:13:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELLWindham

Windham police are still searching for the driver of a large red SUV who rearended a 22- year-old Windham Marine who just returned from two years of active duty in Iraq. He’d just returned home for good five days prior to the accident, having sustained no injuries while there.

Mike Tierney, of 4 Blueberry Road, was driving to a friend’s house at around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, when someone hit him from behind as he waited to take a left onto Marblehead Road from Route 111A.

“I heard brakes lock up behind me,” said Tierney, adding he had no time to react to the sound. “It just happened so fast.”

Tierney said he was wearing a helmet at the time. He doesn’t remember whether he was thrown from his Honda CRV street bike or not.

Tierney suffered a broken leg and will be in a splint for a couple of months.

Tierney and a witness described the vehicle as a red or maroon SUV, about as large as a Ford Bronco, but no leads have developed.

The witness who saw the accident attempted to chase the hit-and-run driver, said Windham Police Chief Gerald Lewis, but it was traveling too fast to tail.

“At this point, it’s just speculation. We know that he hit him and fled,” said Lewis.

Neither Tierney nor the witness who chased the fleeing SUV saw the driver clearly enough to describe him or her, and neither was able to get a license plate number, Lewis said.

Dennis Tierney, Mike’s father, said police showed his son a photo depicting the type of vehicle they thought might have been used by the driver, which Mike Tierney identified. However, the witness who chased the car said the one in the photo was not the car he saw hit Tierney and subsequently chased.

“I’d say the witness had a better view,” said Tierney.

Tierney said he was stationed in the cities of Fallujah and Balad in Iraq, serving in the infantry unit for 22 months before returning home earlier this month.

Tierney said he’d ask the person who hit him why he would take his freedom away after Tierney had fought for the country’s freedom.

“What I want to say I can’t say on television or in the paper,” Tierney said.

Anyone with information on the accident is asked to call the Windham Police Department at 434-5577.

Windham man gets 15 to 30 years for abusing infant son

Salem Editor — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:45:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

A Windham man convicted of breaking six ribs and the tailbone of his infant son has been sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.

“There are no winners in a case like this. It’s just a matter of attempting to provide justice for a 6-month-old child,” said County Attorney James Reams after the sentencing, calling the case one of the most tragic cases he’s ever prosecuted.

In November 2007, Gurrie Fandozzi, 42, was convicted on first-degree assault charges stemming from an August 2006 incident. Emergency responders arrived at Fandozzi’s Windham home at 20 Squire Armour Road to find the Fandozzis’ infant son unconscious and not breathing.

After a medical examination, 26 bones in the baby’s body were found to either be broken or healing from prior breaks, county prosecutors argued in Rockingham Superior Court.

About two weeks after the Aug. 2 incident, Windham Police Chief Gerald Lewis declared that doctors performing the examination determined the broken bones were a result of repeated abuse.

The jury found Fandozzi, a former Connecticut lawyer, guilty of breaking seven out of the 26 bones.

“I guess I understand the jury’s sense of why they convicted him for the specific bones that they did,” Reams said. “It had to do with the doctor’s testimony about how the ribs were squeezed. It was pretty compelling testimony.”

Doctors said the injuries Fandozzi was convicted of inflicting resulted from squeezing the child too hard and thumping him down on his bottom.

During the trial, Dr. Alice Newton of Children’s Hospital told the court the injuries indicated the baby had been abused at least twice.

Reams said there was “some ambiguity” remaining about the cause of the 19 other broken bones, providing reasonable doubt.

Fandozzi’s lawyer, Salem attorney Salem Shadallah, argued at the sentencing hearing on Thursday, June 5, that Judge Tina Nadeau should take into account that the jury did not convict Fandozzi of breaking all 26 bones.

Shadallah could not be reached for comment by press time.

Reams said Shadallah informed him that an appeal would likely be filed. Before that can happen, Shadallah must ask for a new trial. The whole process could take about 45 days, Reams said.

Prosecutors had asked for 20 to 40 years in the sentencing hearing, but Reams said the 15- to 30-year sentence is still significant, given the charges and the fact that this is the first case of its kind in a long time to go to trial.

“That would send a message to him and to anyone else that was thinking of harming their child,” Reams said.

Fandozzi’s 4-year-old child was examined during the course of the investigation, and no evidence of abuse was found.

Fandozzi’s wife, Tammy Fandozzi, was never considered a suspect in the case, Reams said. The two children are in their mother’s custody, and Nadeau issued a protective order preventing Fandozzi from having unsupervised visit with his children while he’s serving his time pending a mental evaluation.

FedEx driver is charged, 27 children unhurt in collision

Salem Editor — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:59:00 GMT

By Darrell Halen

The driver of a FedEx truck that collided with a school bus carrying 27 middle school students has been charged with failing to keep on the right side of the road.

None of the Windham Middle School students was injured when the collision occurred on Cristy Road around 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2. But the crash sent both drivers to the hospital for injuries.

Police Capt. Patrick Yatesevich said the FedEx driver, Dominic Mancino, was charged with failure to keep right.

The charge is a violation and carries a fine of $75. Mancino is not required to appear in court but must answer a summons through the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles within 30 days, according to Yatsevich. Mancino was issued the summons on Jan. 7 by officer Bryan Smith.

Mancino, of 15 Meadow Drive, Goffstown, suffered lower leg injuries. He was semi-concious when rescue workers arrived but became more alert as he was treated, said Fire Chief Thomas McPherson.

The bus driver, Thomas Murray, of 5 Rainstree, Londonderry, suffered lacerations and abrasions to his left hand and face. He was treated at Parkland Medical Center in Derry.

The severity of the damage from the accident was something one would expect to see on an accident occurring on a highway or major road, McPherson said.

“To see it on a secondary street was pretty amazing,” McPherson said. “Obviously, it could have been worse.”

McPherson credited the students with staying calm on the bus after the accident. Another bus brought them back to school where they were released to family members.

Windham police were assisted in their investigation of the collision by the New Hampshire Highway Patrol.

Trial begins for man accused of baby abuse

Salem Editor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:14:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

A Windham man went on trial this week, accused of breaking two dozen of his infant son’s bones.

A jury hearing the case at Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood will decide if Gurrie Fandozzi II, 41, is guilty of 24 charges of first degree assault. He has pleaded not guilty. The trial began Monday, Nov. 5.

In August 2006, doctors discovered that the boy, then 6 months old, had suffered fractures to his spine, arms, legs, ribs and skull.

The baby was brought to a Boston hospital after emergency workers responded to a call from Fandozzi’s 20 Squire Armour Road home reporting that the child wasn’t breathing.

The boy is now healing and living with his mother and sister, according to the WMUR Web site.

The jury will not hear all the evidence that Assistant County Attorney Patricia Conway, the prosecutor in the case, had hoped to bring out in court.

Judge Tina Nadeau, in late October, ruled on 16 motions that had been filed in court, siding with Fandozzi’s lawyer, Steven Shandallah, in some of them.

For example, the jury will not hear what the boy’s 4-year-old sister told child advocates after police began investigating the case. Nadeau ruled that the interview is inadmissible hearsay.

She did, however, leave open the possibility that specific statements made by the girl could be entered if circumstances change during the trial.

The jury won’t hear from the girl at all. Earlier this year, Nadeau ruled she is not competent to testify.

Court filings by Conway depict the defendant, who previously practiced law in Connecticut, as out of work, struggling financially, and unhappy with his family life and with being a stay-at-home father.

“The defendant had a number of stressors in his life which caused him to be unhappy,” Conway wrote in one of her filings. “Although the defendant probably did not mean to break a number of bones in his infant’s body, he essentially couldn’t handle all of the stress and took it out on his baby.”

The jury will not hear from a couple, former friends of Fandozzi, who would have testified that he seemed to be very angry, and became aggressive and argumentative.

Nadeau ruled that she was not persuaded by Conway’s argument that evidence about his personality change is relevant to his motive in allegedly abusing his son.

Conway will be able to present evidence about Fandozzi’s strained relationship with his in-laws.

Nadeau ruled that evidence about the relationship shows proof of his state of mind at the time of the abuse.

And Conway can also bring evidence about the defendant’s strained relationship with his wife, Tammy Fandozzi.

Fandozzi wanted to prevent prosecutors from doing so, arguing the evidence is not relevant and could be prejudicial.

“The defendant’s ability to control himself is highly probative of how he handled the pressures of caring for a newborn and is relevant to whether he acted recklessly at the time,” Nadeau wrote.

Tammy Fandozzi does not face charges in the case.

Nadeau also denied Shandallah’s motion to exclude testimony from Dr. Alice W. Newton, a pediatrician affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital, about the location, cause and age of the boy’s broken bones.

Shadallah had argued that because Newton is neither a radiologist nor an orthopedic doctor, she lacks the expertise to identify broken bones, and therefore, her testimony would be wholly based on the opinions of another doctor, Paul Kleinman.

“Dr. Newton has the appropriate knowledge to evaluate how another doctor’s reading of (the boy’s) X-rays relates to what she knows about the appearance of a child’s bones when they are broken, healing or intact,” Nadeau wrote.

While Kleinman may testify about the severity of the injuries, he will not be allowed to share with the jury that the injuries are among the 10 worst cases of child abuse he has seen.

And Newton will not be allowed to share that the name of the group she is part of at the hospital is the Child Protection Team.

The jury will also not be told disciplinary action was taken against Fandozzi by the Connecticut Bar Association. The matter is too attenuated to have relevance to the abuse that occurred in 2006 and could prejudice the jury, Nadeau ruled. The state argued a possible legal malpractice suit added stress in Fandozzi’s life.

Prosecutors will be allowed to call to the witness stand an auto mechanic about what he saw when Fandozzi brought the family’s cars to a garage to be inspected in late July 2006.

The mechanic will testify that Fandozzi took his daughter outside, leaving his son in the car. The boy, dressed in pants and a long sleeve shirt, did not respond when the mechanic spoke to the baby.

The state argues in the days before his hospitalization showed the baby was despondent and unresponsive and rebuts claims he was happy and well in the days before being admitted to the hospital.

“Testimony about the defendant’s differing treatment of the two children is relevant to explain the defendant’s motivation in harming one, but not the other,” Nadeau wrote.

Former selectman will be tried for felony – Doyle faces Superior Court trial for striking election worker

Salem Editor — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:23:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

The New Hampshire Supreme Court recently ruled that a former Windham selectman can be tried on a felony charge of assaulting an election worker.

Christopher Doyle wanted the charge dismissed, arguing that Gail Webster was disqualified from acting as an election official at the polls on March 8, 2005, because her name was on the ballot as a candidate for cemetery trustee.

Doyle is charged with striking Webster in the chest after he lost a re-election bid to the Board of Selectmen.

Doyle’s father, Edward, and another man were arguing and Webster wanted to find a police officer when Doyle allegedly struck her in the Golden Brook School gymnasium.

Doyle was 26 and Webster was 61 at the time.

The felony charge that Doyle faces, assaulting a town officer, carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine, if he’s convicted.

Doyle filed an appeal with the state’s highest court after Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey denied his motion to dismiss the felony indictment.

“While as a matter of law Ms. Webster ought to have been disqualified from acting as a supervisor of the checklist at the Windham election, in reality she was not,” Coffey wrote in her order.

The state Supreme Court held up Coffey’s decision and remanded the case back to Superior Court for a trial.

Doyle, who was a member of the state House of Representatives at the time of the alleged assault, did not run for re-election to the Legislature the following year.

He lost his bid to retain his seat on the Zoning Board of Adjustment in 2006.

Man convicted after luring teen

Salem Editor — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:04:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

A Florida man faces at least 10 years behind bars after being convicted of luring a 15-year-old girl from her Windham home.

Following a three-day trial, Daniel M. Lenz, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla., was convicted in U.S. District Court in Concord. He had been charged with causing the transportation of a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual misconduct.

In March, Windham police were notified that the girl had run away from home. Investigators discovered that she was on her way to Florida to meet Lenz.

Authorities met up with her in South Carolina. They claimed that another Florida man, Jason Dowling, 23, had been sent by Lenz to pick up the girl in New Hampshire and bring her to Lenz’s home in Jacksonville.

Windham police and the FBI determined that the girl had been communicating with Lenz through World of Warcraft, an online interactive video game, before she ran away.

The case against Lenz was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

“When Congress passed the Protect Act, it emphasized the importance of prosecuting those individuals who use the Internet to prey on minors by increasing the punishment for such crimes,” Thomas Colantuono, U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire, said in a statement. “This office will continue to dedicate its resources to prosecuting those individuals who travel the interstate with the purpose of engaging in sex with minors. Prosecuting such individuals will remove them and the danger they pose and will provide a significant deterrent to those who may consider taking advantage of our children.”

Colantuono praised the work of the Windham police, the FBI, the Cyber-Crime Unit of the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.

Lenz will be sentenced on Dec. 18. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Fitzgibbon.

Sister can’t testify – Court will not hear from daughter of man accused of abusing baby son

Salem Editor — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:01:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

The 4-year-old daughter of a man accused of injuring his infant son cannot testify against her father at his trial, a judge ruled.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau ruled that based on the girl’s testimony at a competency hearing, she lacked “the ability to comprehend the importance of truthfulness and the distinction between truth and fantasy.”

Gurrie Fandozzi Jr., 41, formerly of Windham and now living in Nashua, faces 28 counts of first-degree assault.

Prosecutors allege that he caused multiple injuries to his son, including fractures to the boy’s skull,
shoulders, arms, ribs and vertebrae in the summer of 2006 when his son was about 6 months old. He faces up to 30 years in prison on each charge.

Fandozzi has pleaded not guilty.

Patricia Conway, an assistant county attorney, had argued that the girl was a competent witness in the case. Fandozzi’s Salem lawyer, Steven G. Shadallah, argued she was not.

In her ruling, Nadeau said that the girl was unable to articulate her understanding of truthfulness, and her ability to observe, remember and narrate was “marginal at best and was not commensurate to that of a four-year-old child.”

“Though she was able to provide some details about her family life and her current activities, she often failed to recall names of people and describe recent events with the type of accuracy that would produce confidence in the overall reliability of her testimony,” Nadeau wrote.

Nadeau also wrote that the child was easily distracted during the hearing and answered questions in a manner that caused her to believe the girl did not understand the questions asked of her.

Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams did not characterize her decision as a setback.

“Her decision does not have a huge impact,” he said. “It’s relatively insignificant, as it affects us, as to proving our case.”

At the time of the alleged abuse, Fandozzi was a stay-at-home father while his wife, Tammy, worked.

Emergency workers were called to their home in early August of last year after being notified that the baby wasn’t breathing.

Doctors advised Windham police that the injuries were inflicted and not accidental. Authorities said the case was one of the worst child abuse cases they had ever seen.