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Putting a bow on the Letendres debacle: 'Maybe we should all take an oath'

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Ronald Letendres, left, his public defender, Att. Carl Swenson (Rochester Voice photo)

This writer believes the taxpayers of Strafford County were done a disservice in the indictment of a fired Dover Police Officer who was accused of falsifying physical evidence.

Why?

Because the predicate for such a crime is that the jury would have had to believe Ronald Letendres had taken half of the gummies he was supposed to check in to the evidence room to impede an investigation ... when there was no investigation.

Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi told The Rochester Voice on Wednesday that they possibly could have charged Letendres, 48, of Rollinsford, with theft, but the statute of limitations had run out on a misdemeanor theft charge.

So, really? You wanted Letendres to face up to seven years in state prison for stealing a few edibles.

Over the weekend I told some friends about the case, which revolved around a fired Dover police officer's conduct in a 2016 drug incident. Here's what happened.

Letendre, a former MMA fighter, was working as a Dover patrol officer on Sept. 16, 2016, when he was dispatched to a Dover residence to seize a package of suspected THC edibles sent through the USPS.

The man who lived at the residence told then-officer Letendre that he had mistakenly opened the package - which wasn't addressed to him - and soon realized they might be illicit drugs. He said he them called his lawyer who advised him to call police to have them come to his residence to seize the drugs.

An indictment handed down in October 2020 alleged that Letendre took a portion of the Jolly Rancher-style THC gummies from the package before putting it in as evidence, which was the basis of the falsifying physical evidence complaint, a felony that could have resulted in a seven-year prison sentence.

An internal investigation by Dover Police into the gummies theft may have never occurred, however, but for a widely reported domestic violence incident of July 10, 2020, that involved Letendre and his former wife at their Rollinsford home.

Initially, Rollinsford Police arrested Sarah Letendre after they found her husband with scratches on his chest and a torn shirt.

Soon after, however, Sarah Letendre said on her Facebook page that it was her husband who attacked her breaking four of her ribs.

About two weeks later Sarah Letendre filed her own Domestic Violence Petition accusing her husband of breaking her ribs when he "forcefully fell with his elbow into my left ribcage."

All charges against both were eventually dropped, however during a Dover Police investigation into the matter they learned that in September 2016 Ronald Letendre had brought some Jolly Rancher-type edibles home, at least one of which was eaten by Sarah Letendre, who confirmed the THC content. THC is the active ingredient in cannabis that produces the drug's high.

The indictment, in part, read that "believing that an official investigation is pending, he (Letendre) removed any thing with a purpose to impair its verity or availability in such investigation; in that Ronald Letendre did investigate the delivery of controlled drugs to (Dover address), and in the course of that investigation he did remove a portion of the seized controlled drugs before entering the seized controlled drugs into evidence at Dover Police Department."

During a one-day trial earlier this month Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi said evidence clearly showed there were drugs missing from the 2016 seizure, but public defender Carl Swenson countered that the charge of falsifying physical evidence was wrongheaded.

"The indictment says "with a purpose to impair its verity (truthfulness)," Swenson said. "They are saying he was sabotaging an investigation; what investigation? what sabotage?"

The falsifying physical evidence charge also alleged that Letendre's behavior was executed while "believing that an official investigation is pending," four years prior to when it was investigated.

Ronald Letendre was fired by Dover Police in August 2020 after an internal investigation into the stolen gummies. He had been a police officer in Dover for 13 years.

It took a Strafford County jury less than three hours on Feb. 3 to find Letendres not guilty of falsifying physical evidence.

Vellardi said on Wednesday that he and the Dover Police Department believed what was charged, "accurately captured the defendant's conduct," but that the defense pointed to an alternative purpose.

"The charge was challenged by the defense on the exact ground you (The Rochester Voice) raised - what was his purpose?," Velardi said.

"The court did not dismiss the charge because there was ample evidence that the elements of the crime had been met," he added. "The defense did an excellent job of raising an alternative reason why the defendant took the drugs - he took them to give to his wife, not to disrupt his own investigation."

Velardi added that because this was a circumstantial element (the defendant's mental state), "the jurors had to rely on circumstantial evidence, " adding that "When weighing circumstantial evidence, if there are two results, one leading to innocence and one leading to guilt, then the jury must choose the one leading to innocence.

"That's why I understand and respect its decision here."

In MMA terms, this case felt weak from the opening bell. It was clear to me that Letendres did not take the pills to subvert a potential investigation but rather to give them to his former wife.

In speaking with some friends this weekend, however, they were incredulous that I was incredulous that an indictment was handed down.

"He took a sworn oath to uphold the law," they said. "It was right that he was charged."

I reminded them of my newspaper novel Freak the New: Jounalistic High Jinks in a Small Maine Town and how the reporters at a fictitious newspaper were forever stealing supplies from the supply room, especially those AA batteries that are used in cameras and so many other devices folks use these days. The pilfering in the novel got so bad the order went out that reporters needed to sign for the batteries.

At that point some of the friends agreed that seven years in jail might be a bit much, for stealing a few edibles, but others stood fast.

"Again, he took a sworn oath," they repeated.

Which made me think, "Maybe we should make everybody - every worker, every employee, every employer, EVERYBODY, take a sworn oath to do their job with honesty, integrity and to live their lives like they had taken a sworn oath, too.

It would be a better world.

Maybe we should all be held to a higher standard, not just the ones who take an oath.

- HT

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