HAVERHILL — Midway into the felony trial of former Bristol Police Chief Michael Lewis, the state dropped the charges of falsifying his time sheets for grant-funded highway safety details, in exchange for Lewis paying $9,000 to the town of Bristol.
Lewis and his attorney, Eric Wilson, maintain that the agreement reached on Aug. 28, the third day of the trial, was not a “settlement” — which Wilson said implies guilt — but, rather, a business decision.
“He could pay $9,000 and guarantee the case is dismissed, or pay his lawyer $15,000-$20,000 to carry the trial out through the week,” Wilson said, adding that he was confident they would have won at the conclusion of the jury trial.
Grafton County Attorney Marcie Hornick, who prosecuted the case, had a different take on the agreement.
“The charges are on hold,” Hornick said in a telephone interview on Sept. 3. “They are conditionally nol prossed, on the condition that he pay, and remain on good behavior for two years. The complicated part is if, for some reason, Lewis failed to comply with the conditions — which I think is unlikely — we would bring the charges back and start the trial all over again.”
She explained her reasons for making the deal, saying, “I’m always interested in trying to make the victim whole, so when his attorney offered to pay that amount, I wanted the town to get its money back.”
A Grafton County Superior Court Grand Jury had handed up the two felony indictments against Lewis on Feb. 15 after Hornick had refiled the paperwork originally filed by her predecessor. The indictments alleged that Lewis had claimed overtime hours he had not worked during the period of July 2012 through December 2014, and between January 2016 and December 2017, each time involving more than $1,500.
The patrols in question were paid through New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency grants. Bristol selectmen said they discovered the discrepancies while reviewing internal personnel policies following Lewis’ resignation on Oct. 4, 2017, after he had been on paid administrative leave for a month.
Tandem Trials
On Aug. 26, the first day of the felony trial, Attorney Wilson introduced a text message that Bristol Town Administrator Nik Coates had sent to Lewis, urging him to pursue an opening with the Moultonborough Police Department, “before Rick takes you out,” a reference to Rick Alpers, then chair of the Bristol Board of Selectmen.
It was the same text message that Wilson had used during Lewis’ earlier misdemeanor trial to promote the theory that Alpers was conspiring with Bristol’s two police lieutenants — Timothy Woodward and Kristopher Bean — to get rid of the police chief.
In that trial, Lewis was accused of grabbing the buttocks of Woodward’s wife, Nicole, when she came to the police station while Woodward was out and Lewis was on duty.
Audio recordings of that trial, which ended on May 10 with Lewis’ acquittal, show that Woodward admitted that he had bypassed proper procedures to take the allegation directly to Alpers. Town policy stipulated that complaints go first to Wendy Costigan, the town’s human resources director, and then to Coates. Woodward testified that he went to HR but Costigan wasn’t there, and that Coates was on vacation.
Wilson produced a transcript of Woodward’s testimony to sheriff’s investigators in which Woodward said, “I didn’t feel like sitting down with HR,” and that he had not tried to find Coates.
Woodward met with Alpers at the selectman’s home on a Saturday to discuss how to handle the allegation. Woodward said Alpers advised him and Nicole to write up separate statements about what had happened. The selectmen then placed Lewis on paid administrative leave and Alpers filed a complaint with the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Wayne Fortier and Deputy Eric Bates, who interviewed people at the Bristol Police Station as part of their investigation into the incident, did not realize that their conversations were being recorded on the building’s security system. They asked Woodward to download the video, but not to view it, since that would violate sequestration rules intended to prevent witnesses from collaborating on their testimony. However, Woodward admitted that he had reviewed the tapes, despite knowing as the town’s prosecutor that it was improper to do so.
Former administrative assistant Gylene Salmon later testified that she heard her voice coming from an office and discovered that Bean and Woodward were reviewing the tapes.
In her closing arguments at that trial, Hornick asked, “What difference does it make whether they like Mike Lewis? Really, what difference does it make if they didn’t follow policy? … The elements of the case are: He placed his hand on her butt. … This is a crime.”
The jury came back with a not guilty verdict after a short period of deliberation.
Wilson believes that the current jury also found the state’s case not to be credible.
During cross-examination on Aug. 27, when Bean was on the witness stand, Wilson produced dispatch records that showed Bean’s paperwork, like that leading to the charges against Lewis, did not match the dispatch records from Franklin, which handles the calls for the Bristol Police Department. Bean had claimed time for hours he was not recorded as being on patrol, and his recorded traffic stops were double the number (four instead of two) he had reported to the Franklin Police Department.
It was the end of the day and Bean was scheduled to resume testimony the next morning, but the judge called the two attorneys to his office on Aug. 28 to discuss concerns about Bean’s testimony. It was at that point that they reached the decision to terminate the trial.
“Technically, the case is still pending,” Hornick said.
She noted that, in addition to agreeing to make the $9,000 payment to Bristol, Lewis pleaded guilty to a breach of bail conditions for having guns in his possession. On that charge, he received a suspended $1,000 fine with the provision that he remain on good behavior for two years.
Exculpatory Evidence Schedule
Hornick said there are no charges pending against Woodward and Bean, as any alleged improper behavior on their part would have been outside the scope of her investigation.
“Our investigation was focused on the chief,” she said. “Had there been discrepancies that the town administration asked us to look into, we would have followed up on them.”
Wilson said that, if there is an issue with an officer’s credibility, it is the police chief’s obligation to investigate and make a determination whether there is an issue. If there is, the chief places the officer’s name on the Attorney General’s Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, formerly known as the Laurie List. The list currently is confidential, although the American Civil Liberties Union and several news organizations have been pressing to make those names public. The purpose of the list to let defense attorneys know if an officer involved in a case has credibility problems.
Bristol’s current police chief, James McIntire, gave a terse response to an inquiry, writing, “I would not be able to comment, nor would I.”
