Newport — The husband of a Sunapee School Board member has been charged with several misdemeanors for allegedly altering an email that could have affected the 2016 Town Meeting election, where his wife won a seat on the board.

Joseph Furlong was arrested on Wednesday and charged with one count of false reports to law enforcement, two counts of false documents, names and endorsements, and three counts of forgery. Londonderry, N.H., resident Adam Gaw, a friend of Furlong’s, according to an affidavit filed by Sunapee police, also was charged with three counts of forgery and two counts of false documents, names and endorsements.

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Furlong and Gaw are alleged to have altered an email involving candidates for the School Board that portrayed two candidates unfavorably. The false documents charge alleges that Furlong falsely represented the author of the altered email to be School Board member Janice Bettencourt, who ran against Furlong’s wife, Heather, in a three-way race for two seats. Heather Furlong, who has not been charged, defeated Bettencourt.

The alleged email alteration occurred between March 2 and March 4, 2016, “in an effort to attribute comments to Mrs. Bettencourt that cast her in an unflattering light so as to discourage votes for both her and April Royce, another school board candidate mentioned in the email,” the charges said.

According to court documents, the events began when an email sent by Bettencourt to a friend was then forwarded to Karin Spanos, who sent it to several individuals, including Heather Furlong.

Furlong’s husband then allegedly altered the email with Gaw and resent it, according to authorities.

An affidavit from Sunapee Police Chief David Cahill said that Bettencourt told police an altered version of the email was sent to numerous Sunapee residents on March 4, 2016, during a widely attended basketball game.

The Bettencourts became aware of the differences in the emails when Janice Bettencourt’s husband, Donald, was contacted by the original recipient on March 5, 2016, after noticing the emails were not the same, court documents show.

Cahill said that on that same day — three days before the March 8 election — Donald Bettencourt reported the allegedly alterned email to Cahill.

“He alleged that an email his wife, Janice Bettencourt, had written to her friend was altered and forwarded on to Sunapee residents in an effort to make her and April Royce look bad ahead of the March School Board election,” Cahill wrote.

Bettencourt, who had been appointed to the School Board in spring 2015, finished third, garnering 341 votes in the race for two three-year seats. Heather Furlong received 622 votes and Brian Garland received 640.

In a separate School Board race that year, Royce easily won a one-year seat on the board over two other candidates, with 560 votes.

Cahill said he received both emails –— the original and the altered version — and the altered one contains revisions and “one piece of entirely new language.”

“Paul and I must be causing him some pretty sleepless nights! It was nice to get some insider information but I seriously question Aprils (sic) integrity or motives since disenfranchising herself from the people that support her. I am very confused. Is this just a popularity contest for her?” the altered email read, according to the affidavit.

Brian Buonamano, who is with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and is prosecuting the case, said in a phone interview on Thursday that the full contents of the email are not part of the public record.

“According to Janice Bettencourt, the altered email caused an immediate backlash against her and her husband, evidence by emails that she received,” Cahill wrote, noting the margin of defeat for Bettencourt as compared to her losing by just 27 votes in 2015.

Cahill said Spanos, who forwarded the email to Heather Furlong, among others, told police she discussed it with Joseph Furlong, who “admitted to altering the email message.”

In another instance, Joseph Furlong, 39, went to the Spanos’ home and asked Spanos’ husband to see Karin’s phone because there could be “things on there that could get him in trouble.” Spanos’ husband did not turn over the phone, according to Cahill’s affidavit.

The affidavit also said that Gaw told Bettencourt he claimed responsibility for sending the altered email.

Royce and others involved spoke to police about the email and their contacts with Joseph Furlong.

In one example, Royce’s husband told police that he had contact with Joseph Furlong on March 9, 2016, and Furlong was “nervous.”

In another conversation with Royce’s husband, Furlong is alleged to have said his friend “Shawn,” who occasionally lived in his basement, “could have intercepted, altered and forwarded the email while under the influence of some wine,” the affidavit said. He also said that Gaw sent the emails; Gaw is alleged to have told both Bettencourt and Cahill that he sent the emails, according to the affidavit.

In interviews with police, Furlong denied knowing a “Shawn” or who sent the emails, but told police he was close to resolving the issue and would let Cahill know as soon as he did.

Spanos gave a statement to police in January of this year, saying that Furlong first admitted on March 5 to altering the email and it was “a mistake after too many glasses of wine.” Furlong then blamed “Shawn” and later retracted that claim, followed by a text on March 6 blaming Gaw.

Cahill said in a phone interview on Thursday that his investigation has led him to believe that both Gaw and Furlong had the email and “decided together what to say and how to say it and then resent it.”

Both men will be arraigned on May 2.

Phones messasges left for Furlong and Bettencourt were not immediately returned.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.

Editor’s Note
An earlier version of this story described Joseph Furlong and Adam Gaw as friends without reporting the source of that information, a police affidavit. Furlong disputes that characterization of his relationship with Gaw.