New Hampshire
Candidate arrested on months-old allegation 4 days before N.H. town vote – The Boston Globe
New Hampshire State Police announced on Tuesday, while voting was still underway, that one of the two candidates competing for town clerk in Northumberland, N.H., had been arrested four days earlier.
The announcement said Courtney McLain, the current deputy town clerk, was arrested Friday on 28 misdemeanor charges, each punishable by a $2,000 fine and up to a year in jail. She is accused of improperly accessing Division of Motor Vehicle records to process transactions without having the proper credentials to do so.
McLain appears to have lost Tuesdayâs election. She received 220 votes while her opponent, Kathy Wiles, received 283 votes, according to unofficial results. The incumbent, Melinda âMinâ Kennett, opted not to seek another term.
The announcement from police misspelled McLainâs name, misstated her age, and didnât explain why she lacked credentials to access the Division of Motor Vehicles records relevant to the business her office conducts. Nor did it specify when the alleged offenses had occurred.
More detailed records filed with the Circuit Court in Lancaster show that all the charges are based on conduct alleged to have occurred 10 months ago.
McLainâs defense attorney, Leif A. Becker, said he has known about the investigation into this matter for at least seven months. He said the timing of this arrest doesnât seem to be coincidental. He accused police of outright election interference.
âThis amounts to nothing short of an (affront) to our democratic process,â Becker said.
A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, which includes New Hampshire State Police, did not respond to questions about the timing of McLainâs arrest. The trooper who signed the complaints filed in this case, Brandon Girardi, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Caledonian Recordâs Paul Hayes first reported McLainâs arrest on Sunday, noting in a follow-up report that New Hampshire State Police didnât confirm the arrest until Tuesday.
Court records specify that McLain is accused of using the New Hampshire Municipal Agent Automation Project (MAAP) computer network on May 5, 2023, to process vehicle transactions for 14 different customers by posing as an authorized MAAP user.
Becker said McLain and Kennett had each been given a six-month suspension that barred them from accessing the vehicle registration system. Their punishments came after they were found guilty in March 2023 of disclosing DMV registration information without authorization, according to court records from prior cases.
Kennett was convicted of disclosing vehicle registration information to the general manager of a local grocery store who called to ask about a vehicle that was blocking a delivery, according to the Caledonian Record.
McLain, meanwhile, was charged with disclosing vehicle registrant information in two other unauthorized ways, including during a public meeting of the Northumberland select board, according to court records. On one misdemeanor count in that case, she entered what is known as an Alford plea, Becker said. That is a type of guilty plea in which a defendant acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them, without admitting their guilt.
Select board meeting minutes from July 18, 2022, indicate McLain had asked questions about why a police officer was driving a vehicle with an expired motor vehicle registration. Her comment led not only to the criminal charge but also to civil litigation as well.
William Daisey, who was then employed as a Northumberland police lieutenant, sued McLain, Kennett, and the town. He accused McLain of unlawfully divulging confidential information about his motor vehicle records during a select board meeting.
Becker, who represents both McLain and Kennett in the civil and criminal cases, told the Globe that police carried out a âmaliciousâ investigation and moved forward with McLainâs arrest on Friday despite evidence that contradicts their case. He said the state already has witness statements and photographic evidence to support McLainâs innocence.
In a statement, Becker had called on Northumberland voters to select McLain so she can help clean up âthe âsmall town politicsâ cultureâ that has been causing problems in local government.
âI know that Courtney cares about the Northumberland community and its residents,â Becker said, âand I look forward to addressing these charges along with the manner in which they have been investigated and brought forward.â
McLain is slated for an arraignment on June 3, police said.
This story was updated to clarify Courtney McLainâs plea in a prior case.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
The son of Cher is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a hearing over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home earlier this month.
It was the second arrest in a matter of days for Elijah Allman, 49, of Malibu, California, who was detained Feb. 27 after allegedly acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. It was unclear if Allman had any connection to either St. Paul’s School or the home in Windham, New Hampshire.
Allman remains in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections in what is called preventive detention, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.
Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, faces two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it .
In the incident at the prep school, Allman was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime.
At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system.
Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working. It was unclear from the court records if Allman has an attorney.
In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.
The petition from the singer and actress said Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.
A few weeks later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he is in a good place now, attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his previously estranged wife.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
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