PLEASE NOTE THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST AT THE VERY END. YOU WILL FIND THE NAMES OF THE BASTARDS WHO ARE KEEPING FR. GORDON J. MACRAE IN PRISON! 

Dying in Prison in the ‘Live Free or Die’ State

July 13, 2022

Written By Charlene C. Duline

 I am outraged at the State of New Hampshire!  Every citizen in the State should be!  Recent news articles by Damien Fisher and Nancy West at InDepthNH.org  have pulled the shroud of secrecy from a grave injustice.  Few people in that State knew about a list formally called the “Exculpatory Evidence Schedule,” now better known as the “Laurie List.”  The list was revealed in December 2021 by the New Hampshire Attorney General as a result of litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism which remains a litigant seeking the full publication of that list

The court-ordered release of the list of compromised police is based on a Supreme Court decision holding that if  favorable exculpatory evidence has been knowingly withheld by the prosecution in a criminal case, the burden shifts to the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the undisclosed evidence would not have affected the outcome of a trial.  If such a violation occurred and the State failed to meet its burden, a defendant has been denied his right to present all favorable proofs and is entitled to a new trial or to have his convictions vacated altogether.

Former NH detective James McLaughlin, the shady detective who was instrumental in pursuing lie after lie about Fr. Gordon MacRae sending him to a long prison term in 1994, was prominent on the Laurie List for “Falsification of Records” and/or evidence.  Over 28 years of wrongful imprisonment in the New Hampshire State Prison, MacRae has consistently asserted that the case against him was built on lies, cheating and distortions aided and abetted by a dishonest police officer.

Just as Innocence Project founder Barry Scheck predicted in his 2003 book, Actual Innocence, those assertions have since been ignored or explained away at higher levels of the justice system by judges with a clear bias in favor of police and against defendants — and this defendant in particular.  Judge Arthur Brennan, the first New Hampshire judge to hear this case, told jurors to “disregard inconsistencies” in accuser Thomas Grover’s testimony.  As The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote in The Trials of Father MacRae, they had much to disregard.

In addition to new evidence and witnesses that other judges declined to hear, much of MacRae’s failed 2012 Habeas Corpus petition was about Keene, New Hampshire sex crimes detective James McLaughlin and the shady tactics he employed to generate claims, prosecute, and convict MacRae in 1994 paving a path to lucrative settlement deals from the Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

Now it turns out that McLaughlin was sanctioned on a secret Attorney General’s list for “falsification of records” in 1985, nine years before the trial of Father MacRae.  Under a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors were required to reveal that fact to Defendant MacRae and his legal counsel.  They did not.  This was especially egregious because a central issue in this case has been the falsification of police reports and witness tampering.

Since there were no consequences, McLaughlin continued what he did best.  The record in this case is filled with post-trial witness statements that he threatened, intimidated, coerced and lied to witnesses, and falsified records.  At least one witness today claims that this detective attempted to suborn his perjury with a monetary bribe.  Judge Joseph Laplante, the New Hampshire federal judge who heard MacRae’s Habeas Corpus petition, ignored all of this and allowed none of these witnesses to testify under oath.

Few people know that Fr. MacRae was offered two plea deals before his trial and one during trial.  He was told that if he would plead guilty he would receive only one year in prison.  This honest man turned down the plea deals.  The lengthy criminal rap sheet of 27-year-old accuser Thomas Grover includes multiple arrests for forgery, theft, burglary, drugs, and assault.  He broke his future ex-wife’s nose when she questioned his perjury.

The jury never heard any of this.  Neither did they hear that Thomas Grover several times received financial payments from his personal injury lawyer, advances on his expected windfall in his accompanying civil lawsuit — a practice that is forbidden by the rules of professional conduct for lawyers.  Grover was awarded almost $200,000 for crimes that never took place.  There are photos of him dancing with stacks of $50 bills.

The man who actually controlled the Diocese of Manchester during much of MacRae’s sentence was Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault, now known as Edward J. Bolognini.  He violated Church law regarding Father MacRae who was never told, despite repeated requests, what the Diocese conveyed to the Holy See in Rome about this matter.  Arsenault was later dismissed from the priesthood after pleading guilty to stealing almost $300,000 from the Diocese and the estate of a deceased priest.  He reportedly spent the stolen money in the company of a much younger gay musician. At the time of his nearly $300,000 embezzlement, Arsenault held a $170,000 per year position as Executive Director of the St. Luke Institute for troubled priests in Maryland.  He served only two years of a 20-year prison sentence before being released and his sentence vacated when an unnamed third party paid his entire restitution.  Now a convicted felon with a new name, he today administers a lucrative contract for the City of New York.

 

Comments (26)Newest First

Preview POST COMMENTS…

Pigbtin Mad 3 days ago · 0 Likes

I would like to know how EJB aka EJA was able to change his name so quickly and why a convicted felon could get such a good job in NY. Do they know? I had a phone conversation with this guy today and he was so rude and so condescending, it led me to this article. I feel like I hit the blackmail jackpot. Or maybe I will just send this info to the NYT and the Daily News.

Claire Best A day ago · 0 Likes

You did hit the blackmail jackpot and I have been trying to bring attention to the powers that be on this - problem is that many of them are compromised: US Atty for New Hampshire is Jane Young who was assistant AG when Arsenault pled guilty and went to prison where he was quickly transferred to jail and then home confinement and then released with his new name, new job and new companies (plural) and his $300K approx in restitution paid off. Who shook hands with Arsenault in the courtroom when he took the plea? Jane Young. And Geoffrey Ward who was also assistant AG deleted the files of 28 corrupt police officers. He is now federal prosecutor working with Jane Young. Imagine: Geoffrey Ward was in charge of the Public Integrity Unit at the AG office and he deletes corrupt police officer files when they are about to be made public. Meanwhile, James F. McLaughlin, the corrupt police officer who framed Father Gordon, worked in the DA’s office (probably deleting files) while his corruption records were being considered and eventually dropped. Incidentally, Edward Arsenault’s 1999 business “Virtus LLC - Protecting God’s Children” is listed in the Pandora or Paradise Papers. And it’s based at 10 Ferry Street, Concord NH - an address which was reported to Boston FBI in 2016 for suspected child trafficking. It’s also the address where the Diocese of Manchester refers families to re alleged sex abuse. And it’s also the address of Dyncorp which was accused of being involved in trafficking (remember Rep Cynthia McKinney’s grilling of Donald Rumsfeld on this in 2005 (it’s on You Tube))? Ironically (not) NH GAL Kathleen Sternenberg’s daughter was Chief of Staff for Donald Rumsfeld. In 2021 Arsenault opened a company in West Palm Beach Florida call “Da Franz” which claims to trade “all things Italian”. Coincidentally, in December 2021, just as the Senate Ways and Means Committee started probes about the Pandora Papers in the US (NH is home to $932.5 billion in Pandora Papers accounts), Autofair - NH’s largest auto dealer, was sold to an address in West Palm Beach Florida and Andrew H Crews, its CEO stepped down. Crews was also on the board of Children’s Advocacy Centers NH and head of “Granite One Health” which is tied, I believe, to the Catholic Medical Center for which Arsenault was in charge of increasing profits. Last year CMC was fined several million for a kickback scheme and who should step in to represent the whistle blower for his reward but Chuck Douglas III who had filed dozens if not hundreds of suits against the Diocese and described Arsenault as very pleasant to deal with when he went to jail in 2014. The two attorneys who represented the Diocese when Arsenault was there are Gordon MacDonald and David Vicinanzo. They also represented Purdue Pharma when it was sued by NH and managed to block an external audit of millions of documents which presumably showed the company’s knowledge of goals for addiction (perhaps one of the strategies to drive up profits for CMC under Arsenault). Shortly after Arsenault went to jail, David Vicinanzo opened a company called “Worldwide Languages LLC” with a Mary Arsenault. The company shares the same name as another one in PA that was fined $5 million by US under the False Claims Act. And one in Maine that has got some kind of sexual misconduct claims against it or similar. Smells like a racket is going on and I suspect that the reason Father Gordon MacRae has been denied justice is for members of NH Judiciary, local attorneys, police, Arsenault and victim advocacy groups to protect that racket. I followed the money and the relationships and the non-profits. I was staggered.

Editor’s Note:  The following is a guest post by noted author, Charlene C. Duline.  Retired from a distinguished career as a diplomat and Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department, Ms. Duline served the United States in several nations across the African Continent, in East Pakistan and Panama, and at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  She holds degrees in journalism and political science from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.