Bedford Police Chief John J. Bryfonski

BEDFORD, NH — The name of a state trooper arrested for drunk driving wasn’t included in a public arrest log compiled by police, even though 47 other people arrested for similar charges this year had their names published by police.

Bedford Police Chief John J. Bryfonski said Wednesday he was unaware the arrest of now-former state trooper David Myer, 28, of Lyndeborough, was not in the police logs or that the incident — at 2:14 a.m. on Sept. 21 on South River Road — was omitted as well.

The Bedford Police Department posts all of its incident logs on its website, which include the names of people arrested for drunk driving. According to those online logs, through Nov. 23 of this year 47 people — whose name, age or year of birth, and town or city are given — were arrested on drunk driving-related offenses. Myer isn’t among them. There also is no listing of a stop on South River Road on the date and time of the offense listed in the complaint.

Asked if it was because Myer was a state trooper, Bryfonski said, “That doesn’t make any difference to me. It should be in there. It’s a public record and needs to be a part of the public record.”

Bryfonski said he was going to find out why it wasn’t listed and make sure that the information is put into the logs.  Later Wednesday afternoon, Myer’s arrest was added to the Sept. 21 log.

It said police were called  at 2:14 a.m. about a disabled motor vehicle on South River Road. 

“Charges:  Alcoholism – protective custody, driving while intoxicated,” was recorded in the log.  Myer was given a warning. 

Myer was “separated from state police service” on Nov. 18, or about two months after he was stopped in Bedford, according to state police Executive Maj. David Parenteau.

Parenteau gave no other explanation for the trooper’s employment being terminated, saying it is a personnel matter, and referred all questions about the arrest to Bedford police.

According to court records, police didn’t immediately arrest Myer when he was pulled over. Bryfonski said Myer was taken into police custody in the early morning hours of Sept. 21 but court records show he wasn’t charged with a crime for more than a month. Bryfonski said police used the time to conduct an investigation.

The chief conceded a month-long delay for someone being stopped for suspicion of driving drunk and being charged with a crime — absent a serious injury or a fatality — is a rare event, at least in Bedford.

He explained the logs posted online are done manually, with identifying information such as an individual’s date of birth being omitted.

According to court records on file in 9th Circuit Court-Merrimack District Division, Myer did “knowingly” drive a 2009 Dodge pickup truck on South River Road while drunk.

The complaint is marked in one section as being a class B misdemeanor, although in the descriptive portion of the complaint signed by Bedford police Patrolman Ryan C. Elek on Oct. 27, it is listed as a class A misdemeanor.

Defense attorney David Horan of Manchester said that description fits the definition of a class B misdemeanor which, on conviction, carries no jail time. A class A misdemeanor conviction can mean up to a year in jail.

Horan said the 30-day delay in this arrest is not what happens “in a majority of cases, but it is not unusual.”

Myer is due to be in court for arraignment and trial on Jan. 13. District court Judges Clifford Kinghorn and Paul Moore, who preside in Merrimack, have asked that the case be transferred because of a conflict.

The judges in their transfer request said Myer was a state trooper who worked at Troop B in Bedford. They said he used to patrol the Everett Turnpike from Nashua to Hooksett and that he also worked the Hillsborough County sector, including Milford. He’s also a former Peterborough police officer.

Kinghorn spoke with Judge Edwin Kelly, who heads the circuit court division, and it was decided that a judge out of the area would be assigned to hear the Jan. 13 trial.

Myer’s attorney filed a motion requesting copies of any video of his client’s arrest.

Bryfonski said the police cruisers are not equipped with cameras. The booking process is recorded, he said, but the recording is only available for two to three days because the system records over itself. As a result, there is no recording of Myer at the police station the morning he was taken into custody.

Myer’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Frank Warchol, Portsmouth police chief

Free UBER‘s Christopher David is making headlines again for his latest announcement where he and several other drivers are offering free rides to people on New Year’s Eve in Portsmouth, NH. The drivers are accepting tips, and Portsmouth police chief Frank Warchol said in an interview with the Portsmouth Herald that accepting donations would still place them under government control and means they’d be fined if caught operating without government permission slips.

Chris’ announcement has really put the government gang in a ridiculous spot that shows their true nature. Prior to this, the controversy with UBER in Portsmouth has been that UBER’s background check requirements aren’t as stringent as Portsmouth’s ordinances demand. There’s been endless debate and discussion in city council meetings about who should be allowed to drive other consenting adults from place to place, with the town government agents acting concerned about “protecting” the passengers from potentially criminal drivers. However, no one in the Portsmouth government would care if a felon takes someone from point A to point B for free, but if they accept a dollar for their effort, then the regulations apply! What’s this scheme of theirs really about? Perhaps money, control, and protecting the old cab companies from competition?

The Portsmouth gang is threatening the charity drivers with fines of $500 to $1,000 if they are caught accepting money for rides. How police will catch them is another question entirely. With UBER, police could use the UBER app to monitor the locations of the UBER cars (whether they have, I don’t know). However, UBER is not involved at all with the New Year’s Eve charity, so police would have to run a sting operation by scheduling a ride, then pouncing on the driver when he or she accepts a tip from the undercover cop.

Chris says that his reading of the Portsmouth gang’s “ordinances” and the state gang’s “statutes” lead him to believe there are virtually no restrictions on limousines. The Portsmouth transportation ordinancedefines limousine services as those which, “provide designated luxury or specialty vehicles by prior appointment for discrete functions or transportation to locations outside the City or the reverse”. Chris says the vehicles on New Years Eve will be specialty because they will have fun games in the passenger seats.

Will anything go down on New Year’s Eve between city cops and the charity drivers? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest, and if you’re looking for a ride on New Year’s Eve in Portsmouth, sign up for yours here at Chris’ new project,Arcade City!

Also, for more about Christopher David, check out his interview conducted for bitcoin news publication Coin Telegraph.

By Ian Freeman for FreeKeene.com

Officer Andre Wassouf (left) arrested Uber driver for recording him and refusing to stop driving for Uber

Dover, New Hampshire police came to the home of Uber driver Christopher David to arrest him today. His partner was at home, pregnant with their son, who could arrive at any moment. David was out buying baby food. The arrest could very well prevent him from witnessing the birth of his son. The charge? Class B felony wiretapping, for recording a bouncer in public who was attempting to bully David into stopping his work as an Uber driver.

The city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, under pressure from several taxi companies, recently banned Uber from operating in the city, threatening to fine and arrest any drivers who continued to operate. The first citation was issued to Stephanie Franz, a 63-year-old grandmother and school bus driver. Christopher David started the Free Uber campaign to protest the ban.

On one occasion, David was giving rides in Portsmouth to bar patrons seeking a safe ride home when he was confronted by a bouncer employed by Daniel Street Tavern. The bouncer attempted to bully David into ceasing his work, who in turn recorded the incident. It’s important to note here that David was in his own vehicle at the time, and both parties were on a public street with no expectation of privacy. Nevertheless, the bouncer called the police and decided to press charges of a class B felony for wiretapping, resulting in a warrant being issued for David’s arrest, which Dover police served at his residence.

This is a clear attempt on the part of law enforcement to silence activism protests against the anti-Uber ordinance. Over the last several weeks, Free Uber activists have covered the town with flyers calling out the mayor, city council, and heads of crony cab companies for their efforts to ban Uber in Portsmouth. This arrest warrant is a clear attempt to silence Christopher David for spearheading the Free Uber campaign. Unfortunately, his partner and (as of yet) unborn son will have to suffer.

(Update: David has decided to turn himself in, and was released on a $5,000 PR bond)

Joël Valenzuela is is the founder of the Rights Brigade, a citizen activism organization. He is also the editor of The Desert Lynx.

The New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a report today that details the practice of judges jailing poor people who can’t afford to pay fines – a practice that’s illegal.

The report includes a few case studies, including Richard Vaughan. On July 8, 2014, Vaughan stood before Second Circuit Court Judge John Peter Cyr in Littleton.

Vaughan owed $895 from a DWI charge. It had been a while since he made a payment toward the debt, and Judge Cyr asked Vaughan how he’s going to pay it.

“Your Honor,” Vaughan said, “I’ve been out – I had an interview at Pizza Hut the day before yesterday. I’ve applied at Applebee’s, and a lot of places, and I’m just really trying hard to get a job right now so I can pay this fine.”

The ACLU’s Gilles Bissonnette said, during this hearing, the court should have given Vaughan the option of a public attorney, and the court should have tried to figure out if he had enough money to pay the fine.

“Mr. Vaughan has no idea what his rights are,” said Bissonnette. “And he’s sitting there, and I think you can hear it from his voice, terrified. He did not go in that day thinking that he was going to be jailed and then moments later he was ordered to go to jail for 18 days. I mean, that is an amazing amount of time.”

Infographic: How many who went to jail had lawyers?

Estimates for defendants’ legal representation generated by the ACLU-NH study methodology detailed above. Data via the ACLU-NH report on debtors’ prisons in N.H.

A widespread problem?

Eighteen days in jail – that’s a day for every $50 dollars in debt. That’s state law.

But there’s also federal law going back to the 1800s, and Supreme Court decisions in more recent years. And here comes a word you’ll hear a few times in this story: willful. The law is clear that you should only go to prison for willfully not paying a fine.

“So what we talk about in our report is just how clear and how settled the law is – and unfortunately how systemic it is in New Hampshire for that constitutional principal to not be followed,” said Bissonnette.

Buzz Scherr, a professor at the UNH School of Law and a coauthor of the report, said courts are making two errors here: poor people shouldn’t go to jail for not paying fines they can’t afford; and when judges threaten jail time, they often aren’t offering public attorneys to poor people.

“The shocking thing about the report is…what we’re seeing is a non-application of those two principles” said Scherr. “It’s not a misapplication. They’re just no ability-to-pay hearings occurring. And none of these people – in 50 percent of the cases, we estimate – nobody is getting a lawyer.”

Here’s what the numbers tell us: In 2013, the year the report analyzes, the circuit court system heard 83,000 cases related to fines. And in 289 of those cases, courts jailed people for not paying. The ACLU pulled court records and analyzed 39 of those cases to draw larger conclusions.

The ACLU concludes poor defendants were routinely jailed without determining if they were able to pay the fine. And in most cases, the defendant wasn’t offered a public attorney. The report details three examples.

But Ed Kelly, the judge in charge of the circuit court system, said the ACLU’s number don’t add up to a statewide problem.

“I think it would be wrong for anyone to form conclusions based upon any three cases,” said Kelly. “I mean, candidly, you or anybody listening to this report would have to ask themselves, ‘Are there three instances in my life, in my work, over the last year that I would not want somebody to be recording and listening to?’ ”

Infographic: Circumstances leading to jail time for defendants with unpaid fines

Percentage estimates were extrapolated from the sample group of 2013 debtors’ prison cases studied by the ACLU-NH. All counties but Merrimack County provided defendant files for study. 

The burning house

Dennis Suprenant was one of the minority cases the ACLU identified where the defendant did have an attorney.

“I will say this – he’s not going to be leaving here today until he pays his attorney’s fee,” said Judge Thomas Bamberger during Suprenant’s hearing in the Nashua Circuit Court, February 2014. “They’ve been due since December of 2012. So that has to be paid today. That’s $302.50.”

Suprenant was homeless and owed attorney’s fees, but was about to start a new job. Public defender Suzanne Ketteridge and the judge debate the points.

Ketteridge: But he has done something. He paid for – he went into rehab, he got a —

Judge: Uh-huh.

Ketteridge: — job. That has to count for something.

Judge: Yeah, it does. It allows him to pay his OCC fees.

Ketteridge: And if he can’t come up with the money today, what will happen.

Judge: Then he’ll go to jail until he pays it.

Ketteridge: Which will send —

Judge: That’s what happens.

Ketteridge: Which means he’ll lose his job, he’ll go right back to where he was before.

Judge: Uh-huh….

Judge Bamberger ordered Suprenant to pay $90 on the spot – everything he had to his name – and then told him to pay the rest by Friday, or face jail time. Gilles Bissonnette says the next day the ACLU filed an emergency petition to the state Supreme Court, which overturned Judge Bamberger’s decision.

“The letter of the law here is to consider the circumstances of his life,” says Bissonnette.

Two weeks later, a similar case went before the same judge. Alejandra Corro was supposed to pay off her fine by doing community service. She started to do just that, but then her house caught fire. She had to pass her two sons, ages two and three, to a firefighter through her second-story window. Corro spoke to WMUR at the time.

“I am thankful somebody was watching over me and my children – very much,” Corro told WMUR.

In court, Corro was not willfully not repaying the fine. The fire disrupted her ability to pay, she contended. Judge Bamberger disagreed and sentenced her to nine days. Corro spent the night in jail. Then the ACLU filed an emergency petition with the Superior Court, and she was released.

Infographic: Circumstances of defendants jailed without ability-to-pay hearing

New Hampshire moment in the spotlight

The ACLU is quick to point out Judge Bamberger is not a rogue judge – they document cases throughout the state. And Peter Edelman, a law and poverty expert at Georgetown University, said debtors’ prison is a practice gaining attention around the country.

“Of course all of it undermines the concept that we’re a nation that believes in the rule of law,” said Edelman. “So it’s very, very scary, really, that this goes on at such a great level.”

And to the extent that it happens at all in New Hampshire, Judge Kelly, the head of the circuit courts, said he’s grateful the ACLU report shines a light on the problem.

“Not even one person, not even one person should ever go to jail for nonpayment of a fine when the reason is an inability to pay – period, end of discussion,” Kelly said. “What I would like to do is get to a place, and frankly I don’t think it’s going to be very difficult, where the [ACLU] and I can walk arm in arm together to the rules committee and to the Legislature and say, ‘We agree. These changes need to be made.’ ”

That process might start right away. Supreme Court Chief Justice Linda Dalianis released a statement today saying the head of the circuit courts and the reports’ authors will sit down to look through the state’s procedural rules, and begin to draft out possible changes.

For more on the study, you can read the entire ACLU-NH report right here:

New Hampshire’s Kilton Public Library has been in the tech headlines in the last week after the Department of Homeland Security contacted them and “asked” them to shut down their TOR node. The library was the first to ever operate a TOR node, which stands for The Onion Router– an anonymizing system for internet traffic. Just one month after beginning their TOR operation, the DHS came calling and the library shut down the node until the board of trustees could meet and make a final decision.

Tonight, they decided to turn it back on! It’s a major victory for free speech and anonymity online and it’s also thanks to the dozens of people including Free State Project participants who came out to support TOR at tonight’s meeting.

UPDATE: The decision is being watched by other libraries around the country who will now be empowered to start their own TOR nodes, much to the chagrin of DHS and the federal government gang. According to Free Keene commenter Lee Sussman, Allison Macrina, the director of the Library Freedom Project mentioned tonight that there had already been several libraries that had stepped up and volunteered to join, and that all the recent press surrounding the situation at Kilton had prompted at least a dozen more to contact her!

Thanks, Kilton Library, for standing up for freedom of information!

By Ian Freeman for FreeKeene.com

Since Edward Snowden exposed the extent of online surveillance by the U.S. government, there has been a surge of initiatives to protect users’ privacy.

But it hasn’t taken long for one of these efforts — a project to equip local libraries with technology supporting anonymous Internet surfing — to run up against opposition from law enforcement.

In July, the Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was the first library in the country to become part of the anonymous Web surfing service Tor. The library allowed Tor users around the world to bounce their Internet traffic through the library, thus masking users’ locations.

Soon after state authorities received an email about it from an agent at the Department of Homeland Security.

“The Department of Homeland Security got in touch with our Police Department,” said Sean Fleming, the library director of the Lebanon Public Libraries.

After a meeting at which local police and city officials discussed how Tor could be exploited by criminals, the library pulled the plug on the project.

“Right now we’re on pause,” said Fleming. “We really weren’t anticipating that there would be any controversy at all.”

He said that the library board of trustees will vote on whether to turn the service back on at its meeting on Sept. 15.

Used in repressive regimes by dissidents and journalists, Tor is considered a crucial tool for freedom of expression and counts the State Department among its top donors. But Tor has been a thorn in the side of law enforcement; National Security Agency documents made public by Snowden have revealed the agency’s frustration that it could only identify a “very small fraction” of Tor users.

The idea to install Tor services in libraries emerged from Boston librarian Alison Macrina’s Library Freedom Project, which aims to teach libraries how to “protect patrons’ rights to explore new ideas, no matter how controversial or subversive, unfettered by the pernicious effects of online surveillance.” (The Library Freedom Project is funded by Knight Foundation, which also provides funding to ProPublica.)

After Macrina conducted a privacy training session at the Kilton library in May, she talked to the librarian about also setting up a Tor relay, the mechanism by which users across the Internet can hide their identity.

The library board of trustees unanimously approved the plan at its meeting in June, and the relay was set up in July. But after ArsTechnica wrote about the pilot project and Macrina’s plan to install Tor relays in libraries across the nation, law enforcement got involved.

A special agent in a Boston DHS office forwarded the article to the New Hampshire police, who forwarded it to a sergeant at the Lebanon Police Department.

DHS spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the agent was simply providing “visibility/situational awareness,” and did not have any direct contact with the Lebanon police or library. “The use of a Tor browser is not, in [or] of itself, illegal and there are legitimate purposes for its use,” Neudauer said, “However, the protections that Tor offers can be attractive to criminal enterprises or actors and HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] will continue to pursue those individuals who seek to use the anonymizing technology to further their illicit activity.”

When the DHS inquiry was brought to his attention, Lt. Matthew Isham of the Lebanon Police Department was concerned. “For all the good that a Tor may allow as far as speech, there is also the criminal side that would take advantage of that as well,” Isham said. “We felt we needed to make the city aware of it.”

Deputy City Manager Paula Maville said that when she learned about Tor at the meeting with the police and the librarians, she was concerned about the service’s association with criminal activities such as pornography and drug trafficking. “That is a concern from a public relations perspective and we wanted to get those concerns on the table,” she said.

Faced with police and city concerns, library director Fleming agreed to turn off the Tor relay temporarily until the board could reconsider. “We need to find out what the community thinks,” he said. “The only groups that have been represented so far are the Police Department and City Hall.”

Fleming said that he is now realizing the downside of being the first test site for the Tor initiative.

“There are other libraries that I’ve heard that are interested in participating but nobody else wanted to be first,” he said. “We’re lonesome right now.”

Published by Julia Angwin at www.propublica.org

Manchester NH – Rob Mathias of the Rebel Love Show was able to capture a rare philosophical debate between a patrol officer and himself where the officer admits he would gladly kidnap and imprison anyone over a “violation” so minuscule as a license plate light bulb.

The cell phone video posted below shows what would be a routine “extortion” stop conducted by one Manchester PD officer, with help from the New Hampshire State Police, if it weren’t for the interaction at the end.  When Rob asked why he was being pulled over, the officer stated that his rear left “plate light” was out.  For an organization that claims to “serve and protect,” one would think this would be an opportune time for the police officer to politely warn the driver of the light malfunction, so both parties could be on their way.  But, we live in a police state where tickets are issued to generate revenue for the state, and overtime for the officers.

Needless to say, after an extraordinary amount of time, the officer returned with a summons for the the light bulb which carried a fine of $44.64.  According to the video description, Rob believes his philosophical bumper stickers has led him to be a target of the police.

Mind you I have been pulled over many times by Manchester PD at this point. I am assuming it is because of the philosophical stickers on the rear bumper of the vehicle.

The most disturbing part of the video came at the very end, just before the officer threw the summons into the vehicle.  Rob asked the officer, “would you personally kidnap me over a light bulb?  Of course the cop answered no.  Rob continues the hypothetical by asking what would happen if he didn’t pay the fine.  The general consensus between the two was that a warrant would be issued for Rob’s arrest, at which time the officer explained that he would be glad to arrest him.

“If you don’t pay, then then there’s a warrant, then I would be glad to come get you.”

The cops own words speak for themselves.  If you don’t bow down to the mini tyrants in blue, they will enforce the most ridiculous, victimless crimes to the fullest extent of the law.

Supposedly government is no more than a set of functions that the citizens delegate in order to accomplish common goals such as security, roads etc.  Therefore, if a citizen doesn’t have a right to walk up to a random motorist, demand money under the threat of kidnapping, then neither does the state.

Previous video of Rob being harassed over a sticker

Agents Phillip Lawrence and Ray Persinger from the “New Hampshire Department of Revenue”

From FreeKeene.com, by Ian Freeman

Near high noon today, the first full day of the Free State Project‘s annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, two agents (Phillip Lawrence and Ray Persinger) from the “Department of Revenue” rolled up to Rogers Campground. The sharply-dressed thugs inquired with campground staff if there were food vendors in Agora Alley, a place renown for delicious food available from some vendors who may not have bothered asking government permission to serve their fellow hungry humans.

Upon exiting the office, I immediately began recording and confronted the men. Here’s the video of that encounter:

A crowd of activists quickly gathered, with multiple alerts going out via two-way radio, facebook, and word-of-mouth. They weren’t able to get any further than the first vendor before being told they were not welcome by multiple people in the crowd. A campground staff member ultimately told the criminals to go speak with the park owner, Crosby.

After thirty minutes of meeting with Crosby, the men immediately exited the property. Crosby refused to be interviewed about the conversation, but claimed he was not threatened by them. I suspect he’s not being forthcoming. Porcfest organizers would also not speak on camera, but the conversation I had and overheard leads me to believe that Crosby has been recruited to pass out government paperwork to food vendors. I plan to investigate further with the vendors and see what’s happening behind-the-scenes. Stay tuned here to FreeKeene.com for the latest on this developing situation. Also, Porcfest is just starting, so come out and join us through this weekend!

A group of Porcfest attendees took a group picture with the vehicle of the revenue generators

This afternoon the hypocrite governor of New Hampshire spoke at Keene State College’s 2015 graduation ceremony.  Maggie Hassan, the boss of the state’s executive branch, is likely to veto the cannabis decrim bill if it makes it through the NH senate.  It already passed the NH house with a supermajority of votes.  It’s clear that decriminalization is what the people of New Hampshire want (it’s also the humane choice), but Hassan throws her loyalty into the camp of the police and cares not one bit about the lives that continue to be ruined because of her inhumane war on pot.

Oh, and to make her position even more outrageous, it turns out she herself has used cannabis in her college days.  That raging hypocrisy didn’t stop her from showing up at Keene State College and acting like she actually gives a damn about the very same students that her police regularly threaten and harass over victimless crimes like cannabis and alcohol possession.  Rich Paul and I went down to KSC today to confront her on these things and were accompanied by local education activist Ed Bryans who was upset with Hassan’s veto of the anti-common core bill. We found her at the end of the commencement and had plenty of time to give her a hard time while she was unable to leave, much to the dismay of a few of her sycophants. Here’s the video:

It’s not too late for cannabis decrim to pass, but Hassan and the NH senators need to hear from you. Please reach out to your senator here and ask them to support HB618, the cannabis decriminalization bill. Then please call Hassan’s office and encourage her to do the right thing and let decrim pass.

Authored by Ian Freeman for http://freekeene.com

Activists in New Hampshire have succeeded in canceling a police sobriety checkpoint.

During the warmer months, police departments in New Hampshire conduct a series of sobriety checkpoints. These checkpoints are paid for exclusively by federal grants, and violate the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by stopping motorists without a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity.

Manchester, NH police planned one such sobriety checkpoint, the first of the season, for Friday, April 24. That evening, dozens of activists planned well in advance to converge in downtown Manchester to divert traffic away from the checkpoint, using signs to warn motorists and going to all the local bars to warn patrons about the exact location of the checkpoint. Additionally, activists notified the press of their planned operation.

The morning of the event, facing mounting pressure from the planned protest, Manchester PD canceled the checkpoint, citing concerns over inclement weather. It’s important to note that the weather forecast predicted no rain, minimal wind, and temperatures in the mid-40s.

When normal springtime evening weather is cited as justification for canceling a major police operation, precisely when a huge protest to said operation is planned, one has to conclude that something else is afoot.

Joël Valenzuela is the editor of The Desert Lynx.