Sunapee
Joseph Furlong accuses Cahill of a pattern of intimidating and threatening behavior. Furlong’s wife, Heather, won a seat on the School Board in the election.
On Aug. 22, a Newport District Court judge dismissed several misdemeanor charges against Furlong related to an email the police allege had been altered in an effort to influence voters.
Three days after the charges were dismissed, on Aug. 25, Furlong filed for the restraining order, accusing Cahill of “selective prosecution” and bullying during the course of the nearly 18-month investigation.
Furlong asked a Sullivan County Superior Court judge to immediately issue a temporary restraining order against Cahill. Judge David Ruoff denied the request, but scheduled a hearing for 1 p.m. on Thursday.
“Since I was arrested, my life has been filled with fear and misery, and I am now asking for protection for me and my wife from Dave Cahill,” Furlong wrote in the five-page court document filed on Aug. 25.
Furlong was charged in February with altering and resending an email prior to the Sunapee School Board election in March 2016. The email was falsely represented as having come from Jan Bettencourt, one of Heather Furlong’s two opponents for two School Board seats.
The email, which was altered in such a way that it attributed unflattering comments to Bettencourt, was sent to a number of town residents shortly before the election.
Heather Furlong ended up winning one of the two board seats; Bettencourt finished a distant third. But when her husband was charged, Furlong resigned her seat.
The initial six charges against Joseph Furlong, including forgery and false documents, ultimately were not pressed, but three new, similar charges were filed in July of this year.
Then last month, Newport District Court Judge Gregory Michael dismissed the new charges against Joseph Furlong because they were not the “same conduct” as the initial charges and the one-year statute of limitations for misdemeanors had expired in March.
Police alleged Furlong “acted in concert with Adam Gaw,” of Manchester, who still faces charges similar to the ones filed against Furlong. Gaw has a court hearing on Sept. 12.
In his Superior Court filing seeking the restraining order, Furlong said he told Cahill on March 7, 2016, that he didn’t send the email when the police chief came to his house. Cahill refused to believe him, and failed to contact Gaw, Furlong said.
“He told me if I admit to sending (the email) he will ‘make this problem all go away.’ He said if I didn’t claim responsibility for the email he would make my life ‘very hard.’ I told him I didn’t send the email. (Cahill) silenced me several times as I tried to provide him with witnesses to prove my innocence,” Furlong wrote.
Furlong also claims when Cahill received an email from Gaw, the chief accused Furlong of writing to him under an alias.
“Later in the discovery, Adam Gaw is reported as a figment of (Furlong’s) imagination.”
“Nowhere is there an indication that Adam was contacted by Dave in spite of several documents in the discovery he (Gaw) left a phone number and name with Dave in 2016,” Furlong wrote.
According to Furlong, records show that Cahill interviewed Gaw at the Sunapee Police Station on March 7 of this year and pressured him to “implicate me in a crime.”
“After a lengthy and searing interview, David Cahill tells Adam that he ‘will be going to jail for a long time if he does not implicate me,’ ” Furlong wrote.
A week later, Cahill visited the Furlongs’ home.
“During the first visit, Dave tells Heather to stop saying I am innocent of sending the email,” Furlong wrote.
Later that month, when Heather Furlong tried to file a complaint against Cahill alleging her husband had been “maliciously charged,” Cahill got word of it and spoke to her at the police station, Furlong wrote.
“Dave tells Heather this is about an ‘eye for an eye.’ He tells her that he knows where she lives and that he can come and arrest her at any time,” Furlong wrote. “She went to the police station to report that she was defamed and threatened and extorted from her seat, and Dave continues to threaten and defame her.”
Heather Furlong was never charged in the case. In the wake of the controversy surrounding the allegations, the Furlongs removed their children from Sunapee schools.
Furlong says that he remains fearful of what Cahill will do now that a judge has dismissed the criminal charges.
“I fear that Dave Cahill will continue to retaliate against me. I fear that Dave may continue to threaten my wife as well. I am deeply concerned the above (incidents) represent a pattern of retaliation and selective prosecution from which my wife and I need immediate protection,” Furlong wrote.
A message left for Cahill was not returned.
Town Manager Donna Nashawaty said in a voice mail on Tuesday afternoon she could not discuss personnel matters.
“I have no comment on anything having to do with Chief Cahill, and his employment here is a personnel issue,” Nashawaty said.
Nashawaty also shared an email she sent to the Furlongs on Aug. 28.
“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Furlong, Thank you for bringing this personnel matter to our attention. There will be no further updates as personnel issues are not disclosed to the public,” it reads.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
