Also on today’s menu:
Let The Dead Man Speak
Identification Of Skeletal Remains Reopens Cold Case
Concord Prosecutors Drop Unconstitutional Case
Note: As expected, our journey led into areas without reliable internet access, preventing us from posting our usual weekday news updates. We are now back in civilization, so here goes:
City Manager Judie Milner and Mayor Jo Brown have received a lot of criticism for their proposal to ask the Franklin City Council to approve an open-ended $20 million bond before specifying exactly how the money would be used, beyond vague references to highways, the Franklin Opera House, and Mill City Park — the latter operated by a nonprofit organization that promised never to ask for any taxpayer support.
Now Brown, who is seeking re-election on October 3, says they are no longer considering the bond, although Brown emphasized that the city is constantly pursuing an array of funding and economic options. Responding to criticism about the bond proposal, Brown said, “We will continue to listen to our citizens about their preferences. They shut down the $20 million bond — and that was probably the right thing to do. We did listen. That bond is dead.”
The secrecy with which the city leadership operated — holding closed-door discussions about the bond without allowing the public to attend — created a backlash that was especially strong from Desiree McLaughlin, who made her criticism personal. At public meetings, she vilified Brown until the mayor shut her down; now McLaughlin is running against Brown. The issue that pushed her into the race, however, wasn’t the bond but the the city council’s decision to end municipal trash pickup at multi-family housing units, which affects the city’s poorest residents. She said “two-thirds of your city council ... have voted to do several things against the vocal disagreement of the residents.”
Samuel McLaughlin also will be on the ballot. He came into the race criticizing the city council’s direction for growth. He described the rejected bond as unpopular and said the $5 million estimate the council received for updating the building that serves as an opera house and city government offices as unrealistic. The effort, he said, “feels rushed” and “immature.” He also advocated for involving students in opera house repairs, an idea that Brown had dismissed.
The race came to head at a candidates’ forum sponsored by Choose Franklin, which allowed write-in candidates, as well as those on the ballot to speak separately. Desiree McLaughlin, although her name is on the ballot, chose to save her remarks for the write-in portion of the forum. It became a free-for-all when Brown and her supporters met Desiree McLaughlin’s talk with derisive laughter, leading to McLaughlin’s supporters shouting and swearing at them. Choose Franklin has apologized for allowing it to get out of hand and said it will go back to allowing only candidates on ballot to speak.
NOTE: This post has been updated to correct information that was in error.
‘Let The Dead Man Speak’
The state has a filed a motion in Timothy Verrill’s new double-murder trial to read from Stephen Clough’s testimony, given during Verrill’s first trial before it resulted in a mistrial because the New Hampshire Attorney-General’s Office withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. Clough died this past summer in a motorcycle accident, and his testimony was at the heart of the discovery violations that derailed the first trial. Verrill’s lawyers are saying that calling him as a witness from beyond the grave is grounds for a dismissal.
Verrill is charged in the stabbing and beating deaths of Christine Sullivan, 48, and Jenna Pellegrini, 32, at the home of Dean Smoronk in Farmington, where their bodies were found Jan. 27, 2017. Sullivan lived with Smoronk, and Pellegrini was a houseguest, according to court records. Verrill and Smoronk were members of the Mountain Men Motorcycle Club, an organization known to deal drugs, and among the information that had been withheld in the original trial was that Clough worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Verrill allegedly tried to hide the bodies under the home’s porch and attempted to hide or destroy other evidence.
Identification Of Skeletal Remains Reopens Cold Case
Forensic investigators with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the University of New Hampshire Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery Lab, and the State Police Major Crime and Cold Case Units have identified skeletal remains discovered in a wooded section of Hanover in November 1996 as being Benjamin Adams, a resident of Canaan who went for a walk in June 1991 and did not return.
The positive identification that is considered “at least 99.999998%” accurate has led Attorney General John M. Formella, State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall, and Chief Medical Examiner Jennie V. Duval, to reopen the investigation into Adams’ death.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is coordinating the reunification of Adams’ remains with his family.
Concord Prosecutors Drop Unconstitutional Case
The Concord City Prosecutor’s Office has dropped charges against environmental justice activist Jess Mills of Massachusetts, who was charged with appearing “under circumstances that warranted alarm,” using the state’s “Loitering or Prowling” statute. Mills’ attorney, Kira Kelley, argued that the law is too vague and limits actions protected by the first amendment, opening the door to those with race and class prejudice.
Mills’ trial, which was scheduled this week in New Hampshire, is based on his appearance on a public road at 3:45 a.m. near the Merrimack Generating Station, a coal plant in Bow that activists have been working to shut down for years.
The law cited usually is used against people who are homeless, and those charged under the law rarely go to trial.
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