Thursday, June 24, 2010

Selectmen Once Again Fail to Act Responsibly

During last night's Board of Selectman's meeting, Mr. Brian Moser approached the board and acting on behalf of Mr.Danny Black and with his permission, Mr. Moser attempted to provide the board with Mr. Black's complaint against officer Nate Jette and the Winchester Police Department for an incident that occurred March 21st in Winchester. Officer Jette tasered Mr Black during a routine traffic stop and failed to retrieve both barbs as required by police procedure; nor did he have Mr. Black examined by medical personal as also is required when a subject is tasered. The result was that Mr. Black ended up with a bard buried deep within his sternum requiring surgery to remove. Mr. Moser attempted to provide the board with a copy of the complaint, the Surgical Pathology Report from Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and a video recording of the surgical proceeding conducted by Mr. Black's primary care physician. Citing the usual malarkey and double speak we've all become all too familiar with, the board refused to hear or accept the documents and video. Just what does it take to get these elected officials to do their job and to act in the responsible and professional manner they are required by law to exercise when serious issues are brought before them? Perhaps they should all resign and find something else to do with their time instead of continuing to waste ours. This will no doubt; because of their refusal to act as the governing body representing our town in another costly lawsuit that taxpayers will end up paying for.

On another note, did they act irresponsibly and illegally when they voted to approve giving the winning contractor, that had won the right to do the repair work on the beach wall, another $3000.00 over their original bid when they, the contractor suggested instead of stuccoing the wall, that they change the specs and just smoothly finish the surface? Since they were now changing what was originally requested when put out to bid, should it not have been put out to bid again with these changes giving the other bidders a fair chance to compete for the work and possibly saving us taxpayers some money to boot? To be fair, neither Selectman Sepe or Fraser voted to approve, it was just the three amigos, Tedford, Ruth and Gardner who went along with the contractor doling out more of our tax dollars without so much as a care.

47 comments:

More arrogance in Winchester said...

If i was Mr. Black the town would not be the only suit, the word is the Chief signed of on this incident without checking to see if the law had been followed.

Anonymous said...

In this country we are lucky to have a form of government that is "by the people". Unfortunately, when the dominant demographic is "Inbred Hillbilly" this doesn't work out so well.

Frustrated said...

re: Beach wall.

Article 8 of the Town Warrant voted in on 9th March read:

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of up to $25,000 for the cleaning, repair, and refinishing of the concrete retaining wall at the Town Beach"...

This is what the people voted for. How can another $3,000 be authorized, and where will that money come from? We understood this process to be a 'sealing' of the wall.

Kudos to Fraser and Sepe for NOT voting to approve the change.

doomed said...

People should not be allowed to vote if they have nothing to lose, because they contribute nothing. Why would you vote no on any spending if will cost you nothing? When companies like Southwestern Community Services own most of the real estate funding for anything will be over, welcome to socialism folks.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the only thing we need in town is an "Attorney on Retainer". Get rid of selectmen and all other town boards. Oh wait, that won't work...without the selectmen and boards, the attorney won't have any work!

Anonymous said...

Well at least they're consistent; arrogant, incompetent and unreliable when it comes to handling serious problems.

Hmmmm said...

So it's confirmed the Winchester police use excessive force.

Let me get this right – Nate Jette uses excessive force and hurts a citizen to the point that they need surgery, the selectmen don’t want to hear it because……..they just approved a winning contract, to do repair work on the beach wall………and the winning bid, was to the HIGHEST bidder, not the LOWEST bidder, because THAT bidder had significantly changed the specs of the original bid?

Sounds like a town fraught with problems to me.

thank you grandpa said...

If you don't think it pays to be an employee of the town of Winchester, check out the Saturday court news in the Sentinel.

Anonymous said...

We also have a "police/pet officer" that makes Barney Fife look intelligent! If only this was Mayberry - we would have someone intelligent at the helm instead of Jed Clampett!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBuPQgV8yBM

Danny Black Video and Documents said...

There was a post on the Winchester NH Corruption blog: http://winchesternhcorruption.blogspot.com/

asking if we get to see the documents that the selectmen were presented with at Wedesdays Selectboard meeting?

As posted here on the Winchester Informer you have said the selectmen refused to accept anything from Brian Moser. The documents and video regarding Nate Jette using his taser on Danny Black and then subsequently not checking his suspect causing Danny Black to leave police custody with a taser barb in him, that ultimately had to be surgically removed, because it was lodged so deeply lodged in his sternum would be helpful for us to see.

As the other poster stated on the other blog we would like to see this complaint, the report from the hospital and the video.

Will you please post the original documents and either the video or a link to the video for our ability to see that which our selectmen refuse to.

As the other poster said, now that this is public information I would think we the people of Winchester could now stop speculating about this and see for ourselves.

Watching and Waiting said...

Has anyone noticed that the minutes have NOT been posted for any committees for almost two months? There are finally minutes posted for the PB. Did you see what day they were posted on? a FRIDAY!

Anonymous said...

So where is the video? I keep hearing people talking about.

SERVICE ? said...

They may be giving the new Ex. Sec. time to get acquainted, but i tend to believe its deliberate. They cant stand scrutiny of any kind. In this day an age posting just takes a push of a button, its got to be a little tough with all the 3 day work weeks. Speaking of short work weeks, you've got to give them credit for taking Friday instead of Monday. That would have cut down on 3 day work weeks, and we wouldn't want the tax office and registration open on pay day, would we?

writing's on the wall said...

Holy crap! Let's see the town and the Police Dept. get out of this one. Looks like Sgt. Jette's goose is cooked. What the hell is wrong with Tedford, he should have responded to this and fired this guy.
looks like the blue wall is attempting to cover this up like usual.

Anonymous said...

no doubts now folks this is some serious business and you can bet it's going to cost the town (us) big bucks.

Anonymous said...

why hasn't the Keene Sentinel picked up on this, don't they think this is news worthy stuff?

You've got to be kidding said...

The Keene Sentinel doesn't report news any more. Plus they are all hacks. That's why we have the BLOG. Haven't you noticed?

If they did, they would only interview Chief Phillips who sure as hell isn't going to tell the truth. He is the KING of COVER UPS.

If they do interview anyone else that knows the truth they will only misquote them or have them looking like an idiot because they will take the stupidest thing that comes out of their mouth in a one hour conversation.

Exactly, how will they explain this? said...

The Keene Sentinel is on the Winchester Town Payroll and have covered up more shit in this town than you can shake a stick at. What they didn't cover up they slanted so bad you'd think that Winchester is the "Jewel" of Cheshire County.

Anonymous said...

I guess the posters aren't going to be questioning why poor Sgt Jette gets picked on.

Now they will want to know who was watching the store?

Where were the bosses and why were they trying to cover this up by not telling us?

Totally negligent, all of them.

Not surprised said...

Who needs a video when you have a pathology report. The Chief and the Lt. should have been on top of this. At the very least there should be an internal investigation conducted by an outside agency, NOT BY WINCHESTER PD!!!! How Jette missed a taser barb in Mr. Black's chest is anyone's guess. Sheer incompetence on his part.How does Jette explain this to his fellow officers? Maybe the surrounding towns should suspend their mutual aid with Winchester until Jette is gone or at the very least, the surrounding towns need to be very, very, very, cautious when when backing Jette or when they ask him for backup or assistance. Makes you wonder what type of involvment he had when he went to the Swanzey shooting last year. Hope he didn't have anything to do with evidence or the crime scene. Yikes!! Could this be a Laurie issue?????

Anonymous said...

Wonder what the Hinsdale police thinks - as they snicker at the WPD's stupidity - you took the Lt that we knew we needed to get rid of, who we had to fire, but only after being demoted because he was no good at his job. Then you promoted him to LT and now the Sarg done shot someone with a taser and didn't check the guy to make sure he was OK.

Wonder how comfortable it makes the Hinsdale police to know Theresa Sepe didn't think this too big a deal and was not something that should have been looked into.

Is that the practice in Hinsdale too? Do they hide the truth from the people and coverup when the police do something wrong?

Bet the officers there are fully warm and fuzzy over all of this.

Anonymous said...

In case you all did not know. Before Jette had his accident he was put on the midnight shift because the police dept powers to be was felt he could do the least amount of damage(mistake,big mistake)and Jette was looking for another truck driving job because he knew he was on the verge of getting fired, but that was shelved due to his accident and he was out of the picture for several months.

As far as defending Jette, or for anyone else for that matter, be very cautious as to whom you defend before you truly know that person. Reputations are difficult enough us to preserve and defend let alone defending someone else's.

Jette made his bed and now he has to sleep in it. Jette has stated in the past that he has only worked for one police department and he did not have anything in his past therefore he was not damaged goods.

Jette puts himself above others and thinks he is better than those around him, However, he was turned away by two local police departments and there was a reason for them doing what they did which was for no other reason that he is a problem child with integrity issues who does not accept responsibility for his actions and he is quick to blame others for his poor choices. For example: He took the bike from the impound and said Sgt.Rivera gave him permission. Anyone who knows Rivera knows he would not intentionally break the law by allowing to have the bike especially when when Rivera was having disciplinary issues with Jette in the first place?

Again,know who you are defending before you put your reputation on the line.

Anonymous said...

After the selectmen read the release Brian Moser gave them Sepe said they could not accept anything unless it came from Brattleboro Memorial. What a Joke!!! The information they were given was from Mr. Black with his written permission to them via Mr. Moser. This is not a HIPPA issue. The paperwork is Mr. Black's to do as he sees fit and he chose to give this information to the BOS. And what do they do? The drop the ball and snub their noses.Now that this information has been disclosed fot all to see, what is their excuse.

What's that smell? Could it be Phillips shitting his pants?

Anonymous said...

re: Beach wall mentioned earlier.

I read the 'draft' of the Selectboard minutes about this subject, and they clearly state that the 'wall' will still be treated with Silpro only in a smooth rather than rough stucco fashion. This would certainly seem preferable for a number of reasons. The extra $3,000 was to repair cracks and areas of the wall needing to be done before the application of the Silpro. The total, including the $3,000. comes to $15,500. and that is far less than the $25,000. possible in the voted in warrant article.

immune-not said...

Like most police, Tedford and Sepe think the law and rules don't apply to them, and in the past it hasn't. If one of the papers in the state, or WMUR decide to look into this mess, they may find out times have changed.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
re: Beach wall mentioned earlier.

Your logic doesn't flow.

1.) There was a bid
2.) There were specs in that bid, they were the requirements the Town expected FAIR AND EQUAL bids to be based on.
3.) There were responses to that bid.
4.) One of the bidders CHANGED the specs sufficiently enough that at least that part SHOULD HAVE BEEN REBID.
5.)This caused an unequal bidding process.

Stupidity? Ignorance? Graft? Corruption?

Call it what you want - Don't put bids out if You have No Intention of creating a Fair and Equal Bidding process.

Don't waste people's time.

Anonymous said...

Speaking about walls -

They are crumbling like the one in Berlin.

Anonymous said...

All the more reason why this town needs to choose our next chief of police with at lease a 4 year college degree in criminal law or equivalent. Even in Winchester we can no longer hire uneducated chiefs of police or allow a chief of police to hire deputes like Barney Fife to keep us safe. We are becoming the laughing stock of the state with all the cover-ups this and past chiefs have done. If you were Harrison’s buddy or rat you could have your son break into a house steel guns, money property and nothing was done. What other town can a town employees son hit a tree and total his car and no police report was done. What other town’s employees son has his charges dropped under the request of the chief.

Anonymous said...

If the selectmen chose a higher bidder for the town beach project, for whatever reason, under the same bid criteria, then it could be understandable. When the bid specs have been changed, then the equal oportunity for bidding is nothing but a farce. It is wrong and should be rebid with the same specs. Things like this will taint Winchester's reputation when it comes to advertising a bidding request in the future.

Another Winchester Cover Up said...

Not to mention the alleged felony by the hwy boys on Co. time with a Co. vehicle on pinney woods road. Back when this was first posted the poster said he or she could provide proof.

just asking said...

Someone needs to weed the town beach, the the new tables are very nice. Does anyone know whats in the building besides bathrooms?

Anonymous said...

There is nothing to allege about the Piney Woods incident.

Wally Clough and Don Corliss were the town employees who tampered with and took evidence (bolt cutters & a strong box)from the brook at Piney Woods and lied about it when they were first questioned. It was only after Officer Breau went to the Highway Department and got the bolt cutters from Clough who told Breau he took cutters from the brook.

The Highway Dept was questioned about the cutters and missing strong box and they denied knowing anything about the items.

Later on Officer Breau and Paul McComb spent several hours retrieving the safe,safe door and nearly 200 U.S. Postal money orders from the water and when Breau and McComb left for additional equipment and returned to Piney Woods the missing strong box mysteriously re-appeared.

Corliss and Clough were questioned again later and they admitted to taking the cutters and strong box and they drove back to Piney Woods(in the town's highway truck and on the town’s dime) and threw the strong box out the window.

This information is in the report which the U.S. Postal Inspector has a copy of.

Corliss and Clough committed the felony crimes of tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property. They also committed misdemeanor crimes by hindering an investigation and giving a false statement.

Read the report it is all there in black and white. The report also contains the names of two witnesses who saw the town employees taking the items from the brook.

The incident initially happened on Sunday,February 13, 2008 and Chris Roberts was given the call about a safe in the water. Chris did investigate and he did see the safe and cutters in the water but declined to do anything because he did not want to (in his own words) risk falling in the water.

If Roberts spent more time patrolling instead of sitting on his ass at the P.D. trying to look important he would have realized that the safe in the water was recent.

Its Because of Robert's laziness that Officer Breau got the call about the safe in the water four(4)days later on Thursday,Feb 17, 2008, and while doing his job recovering evidence from the water Breau fell through the ice and injured his back.

Because of Breau's tenacity or should it be said because of good old fashioned police work and motivation, valuable evidence was recovered and two burglaries one(1)to a school in Warwick and one(1) to the Wendell Depot U.S. Post office were solved.(Reminder: The burglaries happened the Saturday night prior to Robert’s shift the next day which was Sunday).

If Roberts had not been so lazy, gotten off his fat ass and did his job by recovered the evidence, there would not have been any temptation for Corliss or Clough to take what they did and Breau would not have injured his back.

Corliss and Clough committed the felony crimes of tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property. They also committed misdemeanor crimes by hindering an investigation and giving a false statement. Read the report it is all there in black and white. The report also contains the names of two witnesses who saw the town employees taking the items from the brook.

Make no mistake about it folks. The crimes committed by Corliss and Clough are real. The felony crimes are prosecutable for the next five years. Maybe Peter Heed should be told about this.

The actions of Corliss and Clough indicate that while they are working on the town’s time they drive around and pick up whatever they want and keep what is not rightfully theirs to take.

If anyone is interested, go to the P.D., complete a Right To Know Request and ask for the Piney Woods/Safe incident report for Feb 17, 2008.

Its Time said...

UNBELIVABLE, not just the felony, but the cover up.Anyone know Peter Heed?

Anonymous said...

is there a statute of limitation on this? can they still be prosecuted ?

Watch Dog said...

As I see it, what the selectmen and the election committee did election day is nothing different from what the black panthers did in Philadelphia by blocking the election hall and intimated the voter, although our voter imitators didn't have night sticks,
Winchester elected officials interfered with our voting rights and the town is responsible for having legal responsibility for what happened, especially costs and damages. A class action suit unless they own up to their actions and resign.

Anonymous said...

Yes there is a statute of limitations.

Felony offenses have a 6 & 7 year statute of limitation. The offenses in question happened in 2008 which means there is at least five years left to prosecute.

Take a copy of the report to County Attorney Peter Heed.

Read the report and you will see that Chief Phillips interviewed Corliss and Clough, got their admissions and did nothing to bring them to justice.

The clock is ticking folks. Tictoc, tictoc.

out of touch said...

Its amazing-The state is issuing furlow days in some depts[non payed days off]and at least one of our selectmen wants to increase the sick days to ten.

Aren't both still under? said...

Bid opening: Town Beach refinishing of concrete wall
There are two bids for refinishing the concrete wall at the beach:

Secord concrete- $22,550.00
JP Mason Men- $12,500.00

Bob has asked for references for the JP Mason Men and they received good references
Selectman Sepe asks why there is such a difference in cost and Bob does not know
Selectman Gardner makes a motion to award the contract to JP Mason Men Selectman Ruth seconds it
Motion carries 4-1 with Selectman Sepe voting No
Selectman Ruth makes a motion to authorize the town administrator to sign the contracts after review by Attorney Mayer, Selectman Gardner seconds it, motion carries 5-0

Anonymous said...

What they didn't give it to Rip-cord?

Anonymous said...

To the person asking about what's inside the new beach house shanty, why don't you go look for yourself?
Here we are discussing a serious incident and you're wondering about what's inside a building, you gotta be kidding. No wonder these people get away with so much, it's fools like you that are so preoccupied with nothing instead of being outraged over this despicable behavior that allows this shit to continue unabated. WAKE UP !

knows the ropes said...

As a former contractor and someone who has been involved in the bidding process many times, I find what has gone on here to be a real issue. When you have several companies/people bidding on a specific outline of specifications and materials to be used, you have an obligation to be fair and lawful to all of those taking part in the process.

Here you have a company being awarded the contract based on a lower bid; then they come in and say, we "want" another $3k to do the job differently that what we proposed. This is wrong, the selectmen should have held them to the original contract and bid, not given them more money to do something differently. Both parties voided this contract when they changed specs and costs. If I had been involved in this process, I'd be filing a lawsuit against the town for what they have done.

Also, just because the money is there, these selectmen have an obligation to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers and save as much money as they possibly can when awarding outside contracts; not doling it out like candy.

Ignorant people like you are why this town is so out of control.

He had intelligence said...

The democracy will cease to exist
when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

- Thomas Jefferson

Anonymous said...

how do i send you pics of on-duty hinsdale police

Anonymous said...

Good Afternoon Blog,
I do not know where to post this comment so I will do it here. This is not about the selectmen it is about the people that work for "us" in the town office.

Yesterday my husband and I had to go to the town office to discuss an issue. We were looking for answers to a problem. We voiced our concerns to the code enforcement officer and the animal control officer. They listened and offered suggestions to help us with our problem. They also told us what to do if the problem should continue. They told us what they could do to help us resolve this issue and they did it. I was pleased to have some one pay attention and act to help us resolve this issue.

the Winchester Informer said...

To send us pictures,documents or new topics for discussion, simply email us at:

winchesterinformer@gmail.com

.. and attach whatever it is you wish to submit to us.

We ask that any and all information you send us is truthful and can be verified.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that they didn't screw something else up. They have been famously doing that ALOT lately!

He has been allowing a lot of nonpermited work to go on around town for several months. Even singling out a small number of neighbors to sue and not ALL of the property violators.

It's all in who you know and not what you know.

F.O.B. (friends of Bob) said...

This posted comment was buried in Keene Sentinel Archives sent to the Keene Sentinel. Mar 10, 2010 8:45 PM.
This comment is just to good not to share with everyone. Written to the Keene Sentinel about Bob Davis that was posted by Old Fart aka: Gus Ruth wrote on Mar 10, 2010 8:48 PM:


comment: What a frig'n joke for a selectmen a co-pilot a chair person to write about a fellow citizen, a pillar of the community like Bob.! Boo! Hoo1 Gus’ feeling are hurt

The comment to Keene Sentinel...quote" Bob Davis got what he deserved, nothing! With all of the slander, lies and disruptions he has caused over the years I am surprised that no one has found a way to file a complaint against him at the court house. He and those like him keep saying that they represent the majority of the Winchester residents, when will they learn on how to read and count numbers to see that they do not represent the majority...... except for the majority of those whose only purpose is to be a disruption to the general public. "filing court might come back and bite you in the a$$.

Gus be careful what you wish for...