Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
New Hampshire
Squatters will be kicked out of homes under new bill
A bill in New Hampshire aims to ensure that individuals who are deemed illegal occupants of someone else’s property, or a squatter, can be removed from the home. But the legislation also plans to distinguish that scenario with situations where a landlord accuses a resident of a home of being a squatter when that individual has a prior history to the property, a legislator told Newsweek.
Lawmakers in the New Hampshire House of Representatives on Thursday will vote on HB1400 after legislators from the state’s senate met with colleagues from the house and moved forward the bill that will make clear who constitutes a squatter and who does not.
“It was really important that if someone is truly criminally trespassing, if someone goes on vacation and somebody breaks into their house, they come home from vacation and there is someone squatting in their home, that person is criminally trespassing and they should be removed by law enforcement immediately,” State Representative Rebecca McWilliams, who is also running for the state senate, told Newsweek.
But she added that lawmakers wanted to also draw a line between that situation with what she described as a gray area.
“Which is when someone has been a tenant, they have an oral or a text message chain that could be construed as [an agreement.] That eviction process should be through the courts and that should be a 48-hour emergency hearing,” McWilliams said.
The issue of squatting has gained national headlines and some legislators across the country are introducing legislation to combat it. But experts have pointed out that incidents of individuals taking over other people’s properties with little or no evidence of legal rights over those homes are rare. They have suggested that some landlords are using the issue of squatting to attempt to deny some residents their legal rights.
McWilliams told Newsweek that the bill in New Hampshire that will be under consideration aims to make clear what side of the issue authorities can look at.
“We don’t want people presenting evidence to Sheriffs, Sheriffs [making decisions],” she said. “We want to direct it straight to a judge to determine whether there was or was not [trespassing].”
McWilliams noted that it was rare for situations of individuals establishing residents in homes without any established links to the property but legislators wanted to ensure there was clarity between criminal and civil disputes.
“If you own the house you went away on vacation, you came back and someone is in your house, you immediately call the police and have the [person] removed for criminal trespassing,” she said. “But also I feel like it’s rare and not really a mainstream thing, so I suppose it’s good to have some language and be very clear.”
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
New Hampshire
N.H. woman accused of civil rights violation after allegedly shooting at lost man because he was Black
Local News
Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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