MANCHESTER, NH — Jury selection for the trial of former Webster Elementary School principal Sarah Lynch, accused of filing a bogus police report in which she alleged she was attacked in a home invasion, is set for March 23 in Hillsborough County Superior Court North.
Lynch, 40, is charged with two counts of falsifying physical evidence and two counts of filing a false report to law enforcement. According to court records, on Jan. 23, 2019, police went to Lynch’s home at 102 N. Adams St. about 11:20 a.m. after she called 911 to report she fought off a burglar.
Police swarmed the neighborhood in search of the assailant. Lynch had cuts and lacerations about her body, consistent with a struggle according to documents filed by defense attorney Anthony I. Sculimbrene. The lower part of her home was “messy, chaotic as if a struggle had taken place,” he wrote.
According to the defense, a neighbor had a Ring system (a video camera-equipped WiFi-enabled doorbell and security system) that showed a man walking toward’s Lynch’s house at a time consistent with the 911 call. Another neighbor also called detectives to say he saw a car leaving the area at a high rate of speed, again at a time consistent with the 911 call.
The defense contends police charged Lynch based on “a few scattered facts.”
Police, however, said Lynch suggested the burglar used a rock to break the glass on the front door. Detectives said the damage is more consistent with a baseball bat. Police found an aluminum bat in her office.
Investigators also didn’t find any blood at the scene and, they said, video surveillance systems in the neighborhood that recorded the street and front steps to Lynch’s house did not record an intruder.
The state, in apparent plea negotiations, is demanding Lynch pay restitution. It is unclear from the court record what the restitution is for but presumably, the Manchester Police Department wants to recover the cost of the investigation.
Judge Tina Nadeau, in a court ruling, said evidence of restitution is not relevant for the trial. However, in the event of a conviction, “the court will rule on the legal question re restitution.”
The defense also asked the court to bar testimony concerning “evidence of flight.” On Feb. 1, 2019, Detective Scott Ardita obtained a warrant for Lynch’s arrest. She had gone to her parents’ home in Hampstead.
He called Hampstead police who sent officers to her parents’ home. They reported back to Ardita that her car was parked at the house but the plates didn’t match Ardita’s information. The plates on it were expired temporary plates. Ardita then had the officers return to the house and arrest Lynch.
Hampstead officers reported back that Lynch had a large bag with personal items in it.
The defense, in wanting the evidence of flight barred from trial, said the state may claim those facts are consistent with an intention to flee and try to admit “consciousness of guilt evidence.”
He said the temporary plates were on the car because Lynch ran out of money to pay for new registration and plates for the new car because she had unexpectedly lost her job.
Nadeau denied the defense request. “Based on a review of the facts the court finds the evidence sufficiently relevant and that there is no danger of unfair prejudice,” Nadeau wrote in her ruling on June 19, 2019.
Lynch was terminated from her job as principal of Webster Elementary School in late 2018 for improper use of school funds and failure to follow the hiring protocol, according to a lawsuit she filed against the Manchester School District.
