Former Rockingham County Sheriff Candidate
David Lovejoy
"YOU CAN'T UN-RING A BELL."
...[Rockingham County Sheriff candidate David] Lovejoy argued that despite the fact he was campaigning to be the county's top law enforcement officer the public had no right to know about his domestic assault conviction because he had the case annulled... Gov. John Lynch has signed a law adding protections for journalists from civil and criminal penalties if they report on criminal records that have been annulled... Under the new law journalists, and by extension members of the public, are now protected from civil and criminal penalties for reporting someone's criminal record, regardless of whether they have worked the legal system to have the case annulled. News organizations and others are also no longer required to remove stories or police logs from their online archives if a case is annulled. In New Hampshire, telling the truth is once again fully legal...
(Online I see accusation of Lovejoy also coming at a Comcast worker with a gun and hitting a farmer over the placement of some campaign signs.)
TELLING THE TRUTH IS LEGAL AGAIN IN N.H.
seacoastonline.com
July 03, 2011 2:00 AM
[Excerpts] In 2009, Rockingham County Sheriff Dan Linehan and Deputy Sheriff Mark Peirce resigned while under investigation for allegedly leaking to the media information about sheriff candidate David Lovejoy's criminal record. Immediately following their resignations Lovejoy sued Linehan, Peirce and a Portsmouth Herald reporter, who published a story that revealed Lovejoy had a domestic assault conviction that had subsequently been annulled. Lovejoy argued that despite the fact he was campaigning to be the county's top law enforcement officer the public had no right to know about his domestic assault conviction because he had the case annulled. Lovejoy was able to do all this mischief because the state's annulment laws were muddled at best and gave the impression that simply speaking or publishing information about an annulled record was a criminal misdemeanor... Under the new law journalists, and by extension members of the public, are now protected from civil and criminal penalties for reporting someone's criminal record, regardless of whether they have worked the legal system to have the case annulled. News organizations and others are also no longer required to remove stories or police logs from their online archives if a case is annulled. In New Hampshire, telling the truth is once again fully legal... From now on if you are entering a business deal, renting an apartment, hiring an employee or even going on a date you'll be able to find out the truth about someone's criminal record. No longer will the law force us to pretend not to know something we know is true. People make mistakes and commit crimes. But the road to redemption should never have included denial of the truth. Rehabilitation is achieved by the person who did wrong accepting responsibility and the person who was wronged granting forgiveness. Today, in New Hampshire, that is once again the law of the land. [Full article here]
ANNULMENT LAW PROTECTS JOURNALISTS
The Associated Press
By Norma Love
June 30, 2011
[Excerpts] Gov. John Lynch has signed a law adding protections for journalists from civil and criminal penalties if they report on criminal records that have been annulled. The new law, which took effect yesterday, also protects journalists who report about a record they're unaware has been annulled. Under the new law, news organizations have no obligation to remove reports about someone's record from public access or to make corrections to the reports if the person's record is later annulled... [Rockingham County] Sheriff candidate David Lovejoy filed a complaint against incumbent Dan Linehan and Deputy Sheriff Mark Peirce, accusing them of leaking Lovejoy's annulled [domestic] simple assault conviction to the Portsmouth Herald... The state Supreme Court ruled in February that even expunged criminal records are fair game during a campaign for public office... [Full article here]
N.H. JOURNALISTS CAN REPORT ON ANNULLED CRIME REPORTS
Associated Press
Thursday, June 30, 2011
[Excerpts] ...The Portsmouth Herald, the Associated Press and other news organizations supported the changes to the law. Curtis Barry, who represented the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters, says it is virtually impossible to remove information once it is on the Internet. “You can’t un-ring a bell. It is a fact. It has happened,” Barry said yesterday ... The state Supreme Court ruled in February that even expunged criminal records are fair game during a campaign for public office and rejected Lovejoy’s invasion of privacy complaint. Barry said news organizations wanted the law to clearly exempt them from liability for reporting factual information. “You can’t punish someone for, in essence, telling the truth,” he said... [Full article here]
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety New Hampshire state politics]
Apparently no one knows of his annulled conviction for cocaine distribution, this happened in the late 80"s I worked for him part-time when it occurred. His father was a Trooper in auto-theft and had that annulled shortly after he served time.
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