By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — School officials have been investigating the “inappropriate relationship” between former Claremont Middle School teacher Erin Mullen and a 14-year-old male student since at least October, and the school reportedly suspended her twice and then reinstated her.
“My understanding is that there were two times that she was suspended during an investigation, and two times that she was reinstated,” said Tony DiPadova, an attorney working for Buckley & Zopf Attorneys At Law who has represented the boy’s mother since the end of September. “From talking to my client and through other investigations, this is my understanding.”
Erin Mullen, 38, of Springfield, Vermont, was served a Stalking Temporary Order of Protection the afternoon of Feb. 5, and then arrested minutes after when she was seen by a police officer with the student at the community center.
“We arrested her for violating the court order,” said Claremont Police Chief Wilmot. “She was served the court order by the school resource officer at the end of the school day on Wednesday, and less than an hour later, a police officer found her in contact with one of the protected parties.”
Police then notified the Claremont School District, and she was immediately fired. Pratt is also looking into getting her certification stripped.
“The court order was given to her at the school, and then shortly after they arrested her when she was at the community center with the student,” SAU 6 Superintendent Chris Pratt said. “They let me know and we took care of things on our end.”
DiPadova explained that in September, the mother of the child contacted him out of concern. He has had communication with both the school district and police department since early October.
“We involved the police department right away, and then the school district a little later for communications,” DiPadova said. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes right now.”
Pratt told the Eagle Times on Feb. 10 that the district was not investigating Mullen prior to her arrest on Feb. 5 for the violation of a court order prohibiting her from seeing that student.
However, that same day Wilmot said that she had been a subject of an investigation for “some time.” He said that Mullen was exhibiting “concerning behavior” that was brought forward to the police from the child’s parent. When asked if police were investigating Mullen’s involvement with other children, he said “no.”
Pratt did not respond to a request for comment about the discrepancy in what he told The Eagle Times about Mullen not being under investigation. He, along with Claremont School Board Chair Heather Whitney and SAU 6 School Board Chair Arlene Hawkins, were also asked when they began investigating Mullen and the nature of the investigation. They were also asked about when she was put on leave, when she was reinstated, and requirements for her to be put back to work.
None of the questions were answered, but Whitney did respond in an email and said, “it has been a goal of this board to be as transparent as possible, so it does pain me not to be able to offer more.”
“One of the Board’s functions is quasi judicial,” she wrote on Friday. “We may be called upon to adjudicate an employee’s grievance per their collective bargaining agreement/violation of labor laws. Per The NH School Board Association it is unethical for board members to have detailed knowledge related to employee discipline or investigations as that knowledge may bias the Board’s decision. For this reason I have to defer to counsel.”
She also said, “I have been assured by the district’s legal counsel that all actions by SAU 6 were in accordance with the law, and district policies. Given employment law and associated RSAs, many details cannot be made public.”
Pratt told NHJournal that Mullen was suspended after the district became aware of the alleged inappropriate behavior. He also said she was brought back to work because she had an emergency court order to take custody of the child.
However, DiPadova said that there were attempts made by Mullen for guardianship that were actually denied.
Mullen was prohibited from being in contact with the student through a no contact order and violated it in October. However, contact between Mullen and the student appears to have started in the summer, according to the NHJournal report, when she served as a mentor while the mother was working multiple jobs.
DiPadova confirmed that there was information in the petition that told of Mullen and the child going on overnight trips and having him stay at her house in Springfield, Vermont.
Mullen reportedly would not send the child home at the end of the summer, and the mother went to the authorities, which Mullen followed with filing an emergency guardianship order. This was granted, but then dismissed because she didn’t appear in court for a hearing. She filed another petition but was denied, as well.
The NHJournal report added that Mullen and the boy had been interacting through social media and X-Box, and that messages were deleted. Police also reportedly have a hand-written letter when she calls the boy “Babes.”
One grisly aspect of this case is that Mullen’s mother, Noreen Harvey, spoke with DiPadova and police. She reportedly also said that Mullen had given tips to the boy about giving his mother rat poison in small doses rather than one big clump.
“Initially Erin told her mother that the boy was talking about giving her a large clump, and she told her mother that she advised him ‘that’s not how you do it. You do it in small doses,’” DiPadova told the Eagle Times, and added that this is all in the stalking petition. “Now whether they were actually planning to do that or not, I don’t know.”
He added, “She (Harvey) contacted my office and the police department because she was concerned for the safety of my client.”
DiPadova said he doesn’t think there was written verification of this, and that it was a conversation between Mullen and Harvey that was passed along to him and authorities.
Also, there are some court proceedings with this case that, by statute, must remain confidential.
“They are in the petition to some extent but I can’t talk about those, but to give you a full chronology, I can’t disclose that,” DiPadova. “The full picture; I don’t think is fully out there but that is the function of the system to protect the child.”
Court records show that on Feb. 6, Mullen pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking and a violation of a protective order. She is being represented by Public Defender Benjamin St. Pierre who did not return a call. Prosecutor John Anderson of the Sullivan County Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Mullen was released on bail of $1,000 and is due in court for a case status hearing on Feb. 24.
