NEWPORT — A judge granted the Croydon town clerk and tax collector a restraining order against a resident who he alleges attempted to place him under citizen’s arrest at Town Hall in late March.
On April 9, Sullivan County Judge James Kennedy granted Town Clerk and Tax Collector Paul Michael Freitas’ restraining order against resident Paul Raymond Whipple, ordering Whipple “not to harass, threaten, intimidate or interfere with the liberty of (Freitas)” for a period of 90 days.
“I hope that this is the quietest 90 days of my life,” Freitas, 37, who has served as Croydon town clerk and tax collector since March 2023, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Whipple, 59, who has lived in Croydon since 2018, but says his family roots in the town go back to the 18th century, contends that the restraining order against him is “baseless” and “unfounded.”
In his complaint filed in Sullivan County Superior Court in Newport on March 31, Freitas stated that on March 30 Whipple served him with a document alleging “crimes against (Whipple) and his ‘person’ and that I was to vacate the building and that I was relieved of my duty as Town Clerk Tax Collector.”
After ordering Freitas to vacate Town Hall and attempting to relieve him of his duties as town clerk and tax collector, Whipple also said that he “would return to make sure (Freitas) was not violating these terms,” Freitas added in his complaint.
“For additional context, last summer, Mr. Whipple posted on a town Facebook group (which was subsequently deleted by the woman running the page) that he was ‘a warrior of God sent to expunge the unholy from the earth,’ ” Freitas stated in his complaint.
Whipple wrote in the deleted post that the Freitas’ marriage to his husband, Croydon Town Planning Board Chairman Jim Morgan, “was an abomination,” according to Freitas.
Following the incident on March 30 at Town Hall, the Croydon Selectboard unanimously voted to close town offices for the remainder of that week. Town hall has since reopened to the public.
“I think that everything that (Whipple) has done, it comes back to the taxes,” Freitas said.
Town records show that Whipple is named as an owner of a property on Cash Street with a delinquent tax balance of over $4,000.
“But then you sprinkle in the homophobia … and I’m like, ‘Okay, we’re approaching a line that I’m concerned for my family’s safety,” he said.
Whipple declined to comment on the March 30 incident and the contents of the partly-handwritten document he served to Freitas, which alleges crimes committed by the town, county and state “in manifest contempt for the people of Sullivan County and New Hampshire.”
He also declined to comment on the unpaid taxes, but he acknowledged the alleged homophobic Facebook post.
“If you are a Johnny-come-lately that doesn’t like what God said, take it up with God, don’t hate the messenger,” Whipple said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “And I don’t even have a message about lifestyle.”
He said he has no prejudice against “any class of people.”
“I’m a minister of the gospel,” he said, explaining that while he wasn’t ordained with any church, he instead earned the title among an “organic fellowship of believers” at a faith-based retreat in Plainfield in the late ’90s.
Freitas also claimed that Whipple was “of that sovereign citizen mindset,” citing the language used in the document served to him on March 30 along with other examples from social media and interactions at town hall.
“That’s a prejudicial statement,” Whipple said, though he did not deny the characterization. “So obviously he’s biased against something that I don’t understand.”
New Hampshire State Police arrested him in connection with the March 30 incident on the day after Easter, Whipple said.
“You know how the whole world got together and celebrated the resurrection of the son of God who lives in his people now?” he said. “Well, the next day they arrested the son of God who lives in me.”
He said he was held in Sullivan County jail for three days and alleges that during that time, he wasn’t allowed to make a phone call.
According to court records, he posted a $200 bail on April 8. On April 9, Whipple, who is representing himself, entered not guilty pleas to two misdemeanor counts of obstructing government administration, court records show. The case remains pending.
