Also on today’s menu:
New Rule Spares Consumers From Robocalls
‘Fat Leonard’ Returned To US In Prisoner Exchange
The Executive Council on December 20 confirmed Third Circuit Court Judge Melissa Beth Countway of Alton, the former Melissa Guldbrandsen, to be an associate supreme court justice, replacing Gary Hicks, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 and left the bench in November.
Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington of Concord, a former Gilford resident who is running for governor, cast the only vote against Countway’s confirmation.
Countway, 52, earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina in 2002. She holds a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and education and a master’s degree in education from the University of New Hampshire. She was appointed Belknap County Attorney in 2011 when James Carroll was named to what then was known as Laconia District Court and later became the Fourth Circuit District Division in Laconia. When Carroll retired in 2017, she again followed him to become a circuit judge.
As county attorney, Countway took a stand with Laconia police in objecting to a request by Amy Lafond to be released on home confinement after finishing the first part of her sentence of 3½ to 7 years for negligent homicide in which her car struck and killed a 14-year-old and injured another teen while they were on a sidewalk. Countway complained when a county jail inmate was released with electronic monitoring without her office being informed so they could notify the victim’s family that the person was out of jail.
Her prosecution of a retired New Hampton firefighter and registered nurse accused of soliciting sex with a child ended in a mistrial when she called his ex-wife to testify and the woman revealed that she had gone to a domestic violence shelter after their separation.
Countway is Governor Chris Sununu’s fourth nominee to the five-member New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Discussion: Warmington’s objection to the appointment centered on Countway’s refusal to answer questions on how she would rule on specific cases; Warmington said the answer gave no insight into her perspective on freedoms such as reproductive rights. Politicians don’t like the judicial code of conduct because it calls for the judge to hear all the evidence before making a decision, rather than approaching the bench with ideological blinders that lead to a foregone conclusion, regardless of the facts. Countway is right; Warmington is wrong on this one.
New Rule Spares Consumers From Robocalls
The Federal Communications Commission has amended a rule governing telemarketing communications to require individual businesses to obtain written consent from consumers before sending robotexts and making robocalls. The FCC’s new rule requires “one-to-one consent” to prevent “lead generators” from obtaining consent on behalf of several businesses or sellers.
New Hampshire Attorney-General John Formella was part of a bipartisan coalition of 29 attorneys-general filing a letter with the FCC in June, urging the commission to enact the requirement.
“The new one-on-one consent rule means consumers must affirmatively agree and ‘opt in’ before a business may sell their contact information,” Formella said. “This rule is another step toward putting consumers in control of their information to help curb thousands of unsolicited robocalls and robotexts every year.”
Discussion: John Formella has achieved a number of successes by joining other attorneys-general in pressing for consumer rights, but he has ignored complaints filed with his office that would have required him to initiate action. A case in point is the harvesting of personal data by the automotive industry. Instead of seeking help from other states in pursuing action to prevent such theft of data, his office has decided the issue is not something the Justice Department will pursue.
‘Fat Leonard’ Returned To US In Prisoner Exchange
The United States has arranged for a prisoner exchange with Venezuela that will bring Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard, and nine other US citizens back to this country in exchange for the release of Alex Saab, an aide to Venezuela’s president, as well as Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Savoi Wright.
The US said six of the 10 Americans released by Venezuela were “wrongfully detained” but Leonard, who masterminded a $35 million fraud against the US Navy and escaped from US custody in 2022, was a fugitive. Venezuela detained him in September 2022 when he was trying to board a flight from Venezuela to Russia.
The US Treasury Department has described Saab as a “profiteer orchestrating a vast corruption network” that allowed “President Nicolás Maduro and his regime to significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela” but the Maduro government describes him as a “diplomat”. Interpol detained him on his way to Iran.
Human rights groups in Venezuela have demanded the release of close to 300 people they list as political prisoners in Venezuelan jails.
Discussion: The US and Venezuela previously engaged in prisoner exchanges in October 2022, but the White House has sought the release of other “wrongfully detained” US citizens. The US loosened sanctions against Venezuela this past October in exchange for President Maduro agreeing to allow international monitors at next year's presidential election, but threatened to reimpose the sanctions if progress was not made on prisoner release.
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