Kibbe to serve three months of 12-month sentence

By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
NEWPORT — Former Claremont police sergeant Ian Kibbe was sentenced to serve 90 days of a 12-month sentence in Sullivan County Superior Court Monday, after pleading guilty on Dec. 4, 2018 to two misdemeanor charges of unsworn falsification and one count of obstructing government administration. Kibbe also relinquished his certification as a police officer. 

“The sentence was what we asked the court to impose,” said Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward. “We obviously are in agreement with it.” 

Kibbe was remanded to the custody of the jail at the conclusion of his sentencing, but not to Sullivan County Jail because of his past connections with local law enforcement. With good behavior, he may end up serving only two of the three months the court imposed. The suspended sentence will endure for two years, during which time if Kibbe were to commit another offense, he might have to serve the remainder of the sentence. 

Kibbe was working with Officer Mark Burch when the two of them investigated a domestic violence complaint last February. Although Kibbe did not have a search warrant, he conducted a search that turned up weapons in the suspect’s belongings. Burch told the court he was instructed by Kibbe, who was his superior, to conduct the search and to falsify documents.

The two officers and New Hampshire State Police Trooper Eric Fosterling were involved in arresting a suspect in his bedroom on Feb. 24, 2018. After arresting the suspect, Kibbe and Burch searched the remainder of the home while Fosterling said he stayed downstairs.

Fosterling later told his supervisor, Captain Brent Wilmot, that he felt an illegal search had taken place, triggering an internal investigation on March 6. 

While Kibbe and Burch said in their affidavits that weapons were visible in “plain sight” during the arrest, Fosterling told Wilmot that he had not seen any weapons in the room or any objects that could be used as weapons.

Later, Burch recanted his statement and told investigators that while searching the man’s room Kibbe opened a black suitcase where he found hypodermic needles and an expandable baton. In another bag, which they unzipped, officers also found a handgun and a magazine.

The attorney general’s office has said Burch hasn’t been charged, but remains under investigation. He is no longer with the Claremont police department.

New Hampshire attorney general’s office also is reviewing Kibbe’s 2016 fatal shooting of 25-year-old Cody LaFont, which it had determined was legally justified. There were no witnesses to the shooting, which took place in the doorway of LaFont’s home. 

After Kibbe was charged with falsifying documents the Claremont Police Department threw out more than 20 cases that relied on his testimony and that of Burch. The Sullivan County Attorney also had to discard several cases that depended on Kibbe. 

“In our experience this is, thankfully, very uncommon,” said Ward.