Vandals hit homes of NHPR journalists

Observe: In maintaining with firm plan about covering news about NHPR or its personnel, this story was independently noted and edited by journalists who are not used by NHPR. NHPR staff did not deliver any editorial input.

The Middlesex County District Attorney and law enforcement in 4 towns are investigating many incidents of vandalism at the homes of two New Hampshire Public Radio journalists, together with graffiti that appeared to threaten even further attacks.

A reporter’s existing and previous homes in Melrose, Mass., and Hampstead, N.H., had been vandalized early in the early morning of Saturday, Might 21, law enforcement mentioned. In Melrose, a particular person spray-painted the phrases “Just the commencing!” in red on the dwelling, threw a brick as a result of a window and was seen managing absent.

Earlier that early morning, in Hampstead, a vandal spray-painted an obscenity on the garage door and threw a brick at the house, law enforcement said.

On April 24, a vandal or vandals had spray-painted the same obscenity in crimson on the very same Hampstead home, as effectively as households in Harmony and Hanover, N.H., and threw bricks at just about every household, breaking windows and resulting in other destruction, in accordance to police.

Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan explained through a press conference Thursday that investigators are on the lookout at modern work by the reporter whose household was vandalized.

“The incidents of vandalism would be relating to on their personal. If it is determined that that motive that we are on the lookout at is in fact the motive for these attacks, if it is possibly in retaliation for some work that she has done or intimidation close to work she may well be contemplating, that clearly entails some 1st Modification fears, and is certainly a lot much more disturbing,” Ryan claimed.

Ryan unveiled a surveillance video of a person throwing a brick at the Melrose dwelling on Lynn Fells Parkway. Police described the suspect as a slender white gentleman, about 5 ft 10 inches, donning a light blue hooded raincoat, khaki trousers, black sneakers and a blue-environmentally friendly backpack. The video reveals the suspect fleeing past many men and women towards Lincoln Street.

Anyone with info on the incident is requested to call the Melrose police at 781-665-1212.

After the first incidents in April, Harmony Deputy Chief John Thomas claimed investigators had prospects on opportunity suspects, who he declined to discover. Law enforcement in Hanover and Hampstead declined to explore details of their investigations.

“We are knowledgeable of doable motives for the felony mischief, but we haven’t decided who’s accountable or what the motive is,” Hampstead Deputy Chief Robert Kelley explained.

The vandal or vandals could encounter misdemeanor rates of prison mischief in New Hampshire or felony fees of malicious damage to residence in Massachusetts, law enforcement explained. If many individuals had been involved, they could be billed with conspiracy to commit felony mischief, a felony, or legal legal responsibility for conduct of one more.

The New Hampshire Attorney Common did not reply to requests for comment. The FBI also declined to comment.

The vandalism specific recent or former houses of NHPR Information Director Dan Barrick and reporter Lauren Chooljian. Chooljian was previously a co-host of “Stranglehold,” a podcast about New Hampshire’s presidential major, and due to the fact December 2020 has been reporting on difficulties at Granite Restoration Facilities, a single of the state’s greatest companies of compound abuse disorder remedy.

Her two most latest articles or blog posts, revealed in March, explained sexual misconduct allegations versus Eric Spofford, the former CEO of Granite Recovery Centers. The very first post quotations an legal professional for Spofford denying the allegations and threatening lawful action against NHPR if the write-up had been published.

“I would definitely feel [Spofford] could be interviewed by the authorities. He could have some information and facts that may well guidance a circumstance. It would be as well early to say he would be a particular person of desire,” Melrose Police Main Michael Lyle claimed on Tuesday. “After the posting arrived out, all this problems started out for the reporter or the information corporation. At some place [investigators] may have a conversation with him.”

In a statement supplied by his attorneys, Spofford denied any part in the vandalism and alleged that NHPR’s protection of the incidents is element of a “coordinated attack” to discourage him from filing a defamation assert above Chooljian’s preceding post. He suggested that a person of the other men and women Chooljian spoke with for that short article could be at the rear of the vandalism.

“Not only was I totally uninvolved with these incidents of vandalism, I also do not aid or condone them. I also do not want to vandalize someone’s residence. I have real truth on my side and I will vindicate myself via lawful usually means,” Spofford said. “I have no motive to vandalize a reporter’s residence months just after an report was published about me, when I am previously expending important methods to litigate these defamation promises.”

“Many individuals in recovery have credited me with conserving their life,” he ongoing. “Probably a single of them felt compelled to do these functions in a misguided try to protect me. I would by no means condone it, but I have no management about what other people today do.”

Chooljian and Barrick confirmed information of the vandalism incidents, but declined to remark further. NHPR President and CEO Jim Schachter declined to focus on achievable suspects.

“That reporting by Lauren and our newsroom is excellent reporting that no just one is going to intimidate our newsroom from continuing to go after, anywhere it requires them,” he reported. Schachter claimed the station is “supporting in every single way probable the victims of these crude, senseless attacks.”