Two candidates for Hillsborough County Attorney will appear on the ballot on November 6: Dennis Hogan (R), the incumbent, and Michael Conlon (D).
The Hillsborough County Attorney is paid around $89,000 per year and has a total budget of $4.6 million.
As the chief law enforcement officer in the county, the County Attorney is charged with the prosecution of felonies and misdemeanor appeals from the district courts. The office works in conjunction with the State Attorney General’s Office, New Hampshire State Police, the county Sheriff’s Department, and local police departments to prosecute crimes committed within Hillsborough County.
There are two districts:
- The Northern District Office, located in Manchester, is staffed by eleven full-time prosecuting attorneys, six full-time support staff, three part-time support staff, three victim witness advocates, one part-time investigator, one paralegal and several legal interns.
- The Southern District Office, located in Nashua, is staffed by eight full-time prosecuting attorneys, one part-time prosecuting attorney, four full-time support staff, three victim witness advocates and one part-time investigator.
In a major change to court procedures, the state rolled out the Felonies First program to the counties in 2017. According to the Judicial Council Report, it was implemented “to more effectively manage the flow of felony cases and related misdemeanors and violation level charges from case initiation through disposition. The general court finds that this will result in significant time savings for the court, lawyers, and litigants, leading to more effective justice earlier in the court process.”
Dennis Hogan
Dennis Hogan (R), age 55, is a resident of Nashua. He has served as Hillsborough County Attorney for six of the last eight years. Prior to his election, and for the two years he was out of office, he was in private practice, located in Nashua, specializing in criminal defense, debtor/creditor, and personal injury law.
Hogan provided the following statement to the InkLink:
“It is important to stay professional and non-political when I’m in office. I do not hire based on candidates’ political opinions or use friendship as a basis for hiring. This has served me well. Since the election, the amount of cases has risen dramatically because of the opioid crisis. It’s important to be efficient.
“My goal this year is to institutionalize the changes we made last year due to the ‘Felonies First’ program. We got 800 more cases over the fiscal year in 2018 versus 2017.
“We have a big responsibility to victims of crimes who seek justice. Our priorities are to do good work for victims, and for citizens who want things prosecuted well.
“I ask for people to vote for me because of my experience in this office.”
Michael Conlon
Michael Conlon (D) age 37, lives in Goffstown. A graduate of Suffolk Law School, he is Chief Compliance Officer to Winthrop Bentley Capital, a startup investment advisory firm.
His legal background is over a decade in regulatory compliance in a variety of disciplines, coordinating with executive leadership and part time laborers, outside counsel, company counsel and regulators to bring organizations into new, effective, compliant directions that focus on training, communication and engaging subject matter experts to find the right way forward. He wrote, “I’m confident that these skills and experiences will be valued and well applied at the office of the Hillsborough County Attorney.”
Conlon provided the following statement to the InkLink:
“As a regulatory compliance professional my first action would be to perform an internal analysis and review of the current functions of the Hillsborough County Attorney’s office, to understand the strengths and potential improvements that can be made in the office. This may include training, technology improvements, operational efficiency, workplace and equipment, caseload and project management, internal and external communications, relationships, and reporting.
“Of particular concern is the failure of oversight and supervision by the current County Attorney, specifically regarding city and town prosecutors. As reported in 2017, the NH Attorney General’s Office performed an investigation on a city’s handling of domestic violence cases of which over 70 percent were being dismissed with conditions. The County Attorney’s Office is charged with the responsibility of supervising this performance but seemingly failed to provide any meaningful attention to this duty.
“This lack of oversight is unacceptable, and with a proper process and control framework, can most likely be avoided. The culture of responsibility travels downward and with what information we have available to us it seems like there is an opportunity to accomplish much improvement at the Hillsborough County Attorney’s office.
“Attorney Hogan has served the people of Hillsborough County for six years and as someone who has not dealt directly with the County Attorney’s Office, we can learn only what we read in the newspapers about Attorney Hogan’s performance. One month ago, on September 6th, 2018, it was published that the NH Attorney General’s Office was reviewing the ‘leadership’ of the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office. The article was very clear to articulate that the prosecutorial function was sound, but that ‘These were questions that were raised about the ultimate leadership in the office.’ I thank Attorney Hogan for his service and believe that the people of Hillsborough County deserve a change in leadership, not training programs for how to lead.”
