By: Cara Stevens
Monday January 10, 2011
Manchester, NH— Joe McQuaid Publisher of the financially strapped, anti-gay and racist Union Leader is in trouble with the law for a violation of NH State Law RSA 651.5.XII, a criminal misdemeanor.
"The issue is that an innocent man was charged with crimes by the Londonderry Police Department brought by an Nashua, NH woman and ex-convict who was refused a rental apartment by the man because she had a criminal record, was a drug addict and worked as a stripper," said Pam Herridge, who is familiar with the case. "The woman filed what has been confirmed were false assault and criminal threatening charges against the man and the Londonderry NH Police Department failed to investigate the evidence in that case; evidence that would have exonerated the man early on and in many respects the Londonderry Police attempted to railroad the innocent man," said Herridge.
The charges against the man were eventually dropped when the woman fled NH when pressed to testify. The woman had attempted to file similar charges against three other men in the past five years, the Londonderry NH Police Department knew this, yet failed to investigate that evidence.
"That is true and is another story regarding the illegal actions of the Londonderry, NH Police Department, those criminal violations are currently under investigation by the NH Attorney General, the Criminal Investigation Unit along with the actions of Joe McQuaid," said Herridge. "Mr. McQuaid is known to be a bully from his pulpit the tabloid Union Leader, as well as anti gay and a racist, this is well documented, even by CNN," Herridge said.
All the charges against the innocent man have since been expunged by the Rockingham Superior Court. The NH law RSA 651.5.XII makes it illegal to report information on an individual who has had charges brought against them but where the charges were either dropped or a non-guilty verdict was reached and where the arrest and charges were later annulled and expunged, as in this case.
RSA 651.5.XII, reads as follows: A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if, during the life of another who has had a record of arrest or conviction annulled pursuant to this section, he discloses or communicates the existence of such record.
"The piece from Joe McQuaid's Union Leader is clearly in violation of this law, Joe McQuaid is not above the law and this is not in any way a First Amendment case, this is pure and simply a criminal violation of a law that is on the books," Herridge said.
Joe McQuaid and Tami Plyler, the Editor of the Union Leader were notified of the violations of NH State law but refused to remove the articles. The Union Leader’s attorney Gregory V. Sullivan of Malloy & Sullivan, Lawyers, 78 West Merrimack Street Manchester, NH 03101, provided the following written response to the violation of RSA 651.5.XII:
"I represent the Union Leader Corporation and its employees and agents. I do not agree with your opinion regarding the duties of media following the annullment (spelled as written by Sullivan) of arrest or court records," said Sullivan. "I will be pleased to discuss this matter with you, or your representatives, at any time," said Greg Sullivan.
However when contacted (over seven times) Mr. Sullivan suddenly refused to respond or to comment on the articles and the violation of the RSA. “I have read over the Union Leader’s articles and the facts of the case and the articles are sensationalistic, the facts distorted and no real balanced substance regarding the facts exists in the articles, basically something a cash strapped tabloid would write to sell papers,” said Jane Dunn, a journalist of more than seven years currently pursuing an advanced degree in journalism.“Mr. Sullivan seems to think he can overwrite the law on the books in NH without any regard to due process,” Dunn said.
There are strong sentiments about this case, Joe McQuaid has been on the hot seat lately accused of being anti gay and racist, a bully, out of touch with average people in NH, uneducated with only his high school GED and no college education, holding his position because of 'daddy' and now this incident where Joe is breaking the laws of NH.
“Joe McQuaid and Tami Plyler have purposely destroyed this man’s life by reporting information about the unidentified man that he was falsely accused of back in 2009, the man was cleared of all charges and received an annulment by a NH Superior Court,” said Casey Clark, a family friend of the man. “Joe McQuaid and Tami Plyler should be held accountable for their actions in destroying this man’s life. He has lost everything because of this case and continues to be persecuted by the Union Leader. He lost his job, his house, could not find another job because of the negative articles written by the Union Leader, it’s disgusting what Joe McQuaid and his so called news organization have done, I hope he is arrested and convicted of the misdemeanor,” said Clark.
Clark also stated that she believed that Joe McQuaid and Tami Plyler did not run articles about bad cops being charged with crimes.
“There was a case where Londonderry Police Officer Jason Archambault was arrested in Manchester in January 2009 and charged with assault against his wife. This is a charge that the public has a right to know about, yet even though it was reported directly to Joe McQuaid and to Tami Plyler, they never ran the piece. It is obvious that they will not run stories, the truth about the police, because Joe McQuaid is in bed with the police, that is clear,” said Clark.
