MANCHESTER, NH — The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office correctly reported the number of Manchester police officers – five – added last year to a list of officers identified as having credibility problems because of their dishonesty and/or criminal activity.
→Related story: Manchester Police Chief disputes number of offices listed on ‘Laurie List’
Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward, Chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau, said five Manchester police officers were put on the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, familiarly known as the “Laurie List,” last year. He explained his office compiles the list based on reports received not only from individual police departments but other agencies as well including county attorney offices.
He said he spoke with Manchester Police Chief Carlo Capano, who last week disputed the numbers. However, Ward said Capano now is in agreement with it.
The fifth officer was an officer originally listed in the 1990s whose name had not populated on the list due to a technical error.
While the attorney general’s office keeps track of those dishonest officers, they do not monitor the number of criminal cases that are dismissed because of officers’ dishonesty, Ward said.
He said individual police departments or county attorney offices might.
Capano said previously that three officers were added to the list because of truthfulness issues and the fourth was reported for unlawful conduct.
In total, there are 25 Manchester police officers on the list that spans 22 years. Only two remain on the force. The others were fired, retired or resigned, according to Capano.
Law enforcement agencies across the state are required to notify the attorney general of officers’ misbehavior that can call their credibility into question. That information is needed for a prosecutor to determine whether it is exculpatory evidence that should be provided to the defense.
The list that was released is heavily redacted, with all the names of the officers and the dates of the incidents blacked out. The American Civil Liberties Union-NH and several media organizations were in court Feb. 25 asking a Hillsborough County Superior Court-South judge to rule that that information should be public.
