BY TIMOTHY LA ROCHE
[email protected]
CLAREMONT — One of the police officers accused of lying to justify an allegedly illegal search during a late-February investigation has been arrested.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday that former officer Ian Kibbe, 30, has been charged with conspiracy to commit perjury, attempted perjury, two counts of unsworn falsification and two counts of obstructing government administration.
No charges have been announced against former officer Mark Burch, who was also named in the case.
“Both officers were no longer employees with me as of March 21,” Chief Mark Chase said on Thursday. “The last time either employee had reported to work was a week prior.”
On Thursday, Kibbe remained free on $5,000 bail, according to court records.
Court documents state the charges stem from an investigation that opened March 15 after Chase reported to the Attorney General’s Office that two of his officers had possibly engaged in criminal conduct while searching a home.
Burch told investigators that Kibbe, who was his shift supervisor, allegedly instructed him to falsify details of the search in his affidavit to say that the items were in plain view during the arrest.
Kibbe is scheduled to be arraigned in Sullivan County Superior Court on May 14.
On Feb. 24, the two officers went to the apartment of a convicted felon who had allegedly violated a protective order. New Hampshire State Police Trooper Eric Fosterling assisted in the case after police determined there was probable cause for a domestic violence arrest.
After police arrested the man in his bedroom just after 1:30 a.m., Kibbe and Burch searched the remainder of the home while Fosterling remained downstairs, according to court records.
The two officers returned from their search having seized several weapons from the home, court documents state.
However, initial accounts of the scene given by the officers and Fosterling diverge. While Kibbe and Burch said in their affidavits that weapons were visible in “plain site” during the arrest, Fosterling said in interview with Capt. Brent Wilmot that he had not seen any weapons in the room or any objects that could be used as weapons.
“In the days that followed, Trooper Fosterling stated that he felt uncomfortable about the search of [the subject’s] room because he believed it had been an unlawful search,” court documents state. “Trooper Fosterling told Captain Wilmot that he was troubled to the point that he has already raised his concerns with his immediate supervisor at the New Hampshire State Police.”
Fosterling’s uneasiness about the search on March 6 triggered an internal investigation.
Chase said he could not comment on the details of an internal investigation but he noted that he reported the findings of the probe to state investigators.
“If I get the hint of a potential crime from a police officer … I have to report it to the New Hampshire attorney general,” Chase said.
State investigators interviewed Burch on March 22 about the allegations.
According to court documents, Burch told investigators that while searching the man’s room Kibbe opened a black suitcase without a warrant to find hypodermic needles and an expandable baton. In the zipped pockets of a messenger bag nearby, the officers also found a handgun and magazine.
“Officer Burch explained that he was struggling, throughout the search, with the realization that they should not be engaging in a search of the room without a warrant when he believed that he had more than enough probable cause to have stopped and obtained the warrant,” court documents state.
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