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A Black student expelled from Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine claims a racially biased administrator pushed a flawed sexual assault investigation that ended his studies.

Now, the student, who is using the pseudonym “John Doe” in the lawsuit, is suing the Ivy League school in the United States District Court in Concord in hopes of graduating. Doe was one credit shy of completing his studies when he was expelled.

According to the lawsuit, Dartmouth’s all-White Title IX Hearing Panel found he had violated the college’s Sexual and Gender Based Misconduct Policy, or SMP, and ordered him expelled. Doe is accused of raping a woman he met through a dating app. He has never been charged criminally. Doe maintains the sex was consensual. 

Doe’s lawsuit claims not only did administrators violate the SMP rules for investigations, but the panel operated as a kangaroo court that denied him due process and relied on dodgy evidence.

Doe’s legal advisor for the Dec. 7, 2023  final hearing was not given access to the evidence until Dec. 6. At the last minute, the panel rescheduled the hearing to Dec. 8, according to the lawsuit. 

The panel ignored the results of a rape kit, which found the alleged victim did not suffer any trauma from the sexual encounter, the lawsuit states. The panel also did not question a video the woman presented as being from the sexual assault. According to Doe’s lawsuit, the video is almost completely dark and does not show him present. Instead, the woman — who is also not visible in the video — is heard saying stop. The video was posted to social media a month and a half after their sexual encounter, Doe claims.

Doe puts much of the blame on Dartmouth’s Title IX Coordinator, Kristi Clemens. Clemens is Dartmouth’s Assistant Vice President for Equity and Compliance and has a history of being involved in a racist incident involving Doe, according to the lawsuit.

In 2015, when he was an undergraduate, Doe said he was falsely accused of threatening a professor. In a subsequent meeting with Clemens, she told him he posed a threat because he is “big, tall, and Black,” the lawsuit states.

Doe was later targeted for racial harassment and threats by other students in 2016, but those complaints were ignored when he reported them to Clemens and other administrators, the lawsuit states.

Dartmouth did not respond to NHJournal’s request for comment.

It was Clemens who decided in December of 2022 to pursue an SMP investigation against Doe, even though the accusation did not fall under the scope of the school’s policy, according to the lawsuit.

Doe’s story is that he met a woman, referred to as Sally Smith in the lawsuit, through a dating app in late October 2022. The woman was not a Dartmouth student or employee, nor was she taking part in any college program. Smith told Doe she was single, and Doe says the two talked about seeking long-term relationships.

The pair hit it off, and a few days later, on Nov. 3, they had a sexual encounter at his apartment in Vermont.

Days later, on Nov. 9, Doe says Smith accused him of rape via a text message. Doe was stunned by the accusation and cut off contact with the woman. In the following weeks, Doe began getting threatening messages via text from a man he did not know, according to the lawsuit. The threats included statements to the effect he knew where Doe lived.

On Dec. 9, Doe was contacted by Vermont State Police Detective Chris Pilner, who was investigating Smith’s rape accusation. According to the lawsuit, Doe learned from Pilner that, much to his surprise, Smith is married. 

According to Pilner, Smith’s husband was now angry with Doe, and police had information he wanted to hurt Doe. Pilner went on to tell Doe that Smith reported the rape in November of 2022 but had stopped responding to police in the ensuing weeks.

Doe was never charged with a crime related to Smith’s accusations. However, weeks after Pilner interviewed him, Clemens informed Doe she was starting an SMP investigation based on a complaint from Smith. 

Doe’s lawsuit states the investigation went forward even though the incident in question did not occur within the bounds of Dartmouth’s jurisdiction. The encounter did not occur in a Dartmouth-owned building or involve student accusers and accused, nor was it in any way connected to any Dartmouth-sponsored program as the SMP normally requires to open an investigation.

When questioned, Clemens told Doe the policy allows for expanding the scope of investigations in “limited circumstances.” Though, according to the lawsuit, Clemens never explained to Doe what the circumstances were in his case. 

Doe is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Doe and his family struggled for years after they arrived in the United States in 2011, and he was even required to drop out of middle school to support his family for a time. Outside of school, he runs a non-profit that provides healthcare to women and children in his home country. 

Dartmouth’s current Sexual Misconduct Policy is partly a response to accusations the school has turned a blind eye to sexual harassment and assault. In 2020, Dartmouth agreed to a $14 million settlement in the lawsuit brought by several women who say they were harassed and assaulted by Department of Psychological and Brain Science professors Todd Heatherton, William Kelley, and Paul Whalen.

That lawsuit claimed the college facilitated the abuse by looking the other way and allowing for a culture of drinking, rape, and sexual harassment for years in the department.

Alex Talcott’s frightening spiral of depression, abuse, and suicide threats ended in an attack on his wife that forced her to kill him in self-defense, according to a report released Thursday by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

“I’m going to kill you and kill the kids, and then I am going to kill myself because you know I can’t take care of them,” Alex Talcott reportedly told Kristin Talcott during the Aug. 26, 2023 attack.

Kristin Talcott will not be charged for fatally stabbing her husband in the neck, as the Attorney General’s Office ruled it a legally justifiable act taken in self-defense.

A long-time GOP activist, news of Alex Talcott’s death sent shockwaves through his circle of friends and the state Republican Party, though the details of his tortured final months were not known. At 41, Alex Talcott was deeply in debt, unemployed, and resigned to losing the house where he lived with his wife and their three young children.

Friends who had interacted with Alex Talcott in his final months told investigators he seemed depressed and stressed, but they did not know the full details of his struggle. 

Several GOP sources told NHJournal he had reached out to them looking for help finding a job, a sign of financial trouble that caught them by surprise.

Kristin Talcott told investigators she did not know about the family’s precarious financial position until early in 2023. That was when she learned her husband’s real estate ventures collapsed, the family did not have health insurance due to missed payments, they were several months behind on the mortgage, their credit cards were maxed out, and Alex Talcott had not filed tax returns in years.

Kristin Talcott, 41, was a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled their children and left the family’s money management to her husband. The couple met while attending Dartmouth College. Alex Talcott was a licensed attorney, though he had stopped practicing law to venture into real estate entrepreneurship. 

That was when Alex Talcott’s mental health started failing, according to the report. He fell into depression and told Kristin Talcott he wanted to kill himself. He also started to be verbally abusive, she told investigators.

There were also instances of Alex Talcott’s behavior stooping to “physical aggression,” according to the report. Kristin Talcott told investigators there were isolated incidents, and she did not report them out of embarrassment. 

Last summer, Alex Talcott borrowed more and more money from friends and family as he looked for a job with a high salary. Kristin Talcott, a licensed social worker, renewed her license and started a practice in order to bring in money for the family.

Kristin Talcott begged her husband to seek therapy and take medication for his eroding mental health. But he became more erratic and volatile, she told investigators. It was at that point she started to make plans to leave with the children.

Kristin took the children for an overnight trip to Massachusetts to visit her parents on Aug. 24, returning on the evening of Aug. 25. She went to bed around 8:30 p.m. in the area of the house where the children slept. The couple had slept separately for some time, and Kristin Talcott had begun sleeping with a can of pepper spray due to fear of her husband.

At 1:30 in the morning on Aug. 26, Alex Talcott woke his wife to talk. She told investigators he seemed calm when they went to the master bedroom and sat on the side of the bed. Alex Talcott revealed he found notes she had written about her plans to separate. Kristin Talcott kept the plans secret, fearing Alex Talcott’s reaction.

“You really think I would let you and the kids leave?” He reportedly said.

He pulled out a kitchen knife and began cutting Kristin Talcott, she told investigators. She begged him to stop, but he continued to cut her, telling her he would never let her leave. Kristin Talcott took the pepper spray from her pocket and sprayed him. He fell back on the bed, and she grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the neck, she told investigators.

Kristin Talcott dropped the knife after she stabbed her husband. Alex Talcott’s demeanor seemed to change after his wife fought back. He started to tell her he loved her and how he was “going to get this fixed.”

Kristin Talcott, still terrified, tried to get Alex Talcott to lie down. He would not let her call the police but instead went on about how he would “figure this out.”

“You’re crazy,” Kristin Talcott responded.

That set Alex Talcott off again. He got the knife and pushed her against the wall. He thrust the knife at her stomach, jabbing it toward her. As he did so, he told his wife of 17 years he was going to kill her, the children, and then himself.

Kristin Talcott struggled and got control of the knife. Again, she stabbed him in the neck. He stopped attacking her and stumbled into the master bathroom. Kristen Talcott told investigators she did not have her cell phone, and she could not unlock her husband’s cell phone to call 911. She did not want to leave, as she was still frightened he would attack her again.

“I wasn’t going to leave him while I still thought he could still come after me,” she told investigators.

From the bathroom, Alex Talcott asked his wife for a piece of fruit. He also asked her to call the police. Kristin Talcott lied and told him the police were already on their way. He then fell to the floor of the bathroom. Kristin Talcott told investigators she felt it was now safe to leave and ran to get her cell phone from the room she shared with her children.

Kristin Talcott called the police and then got an apple to bring to her husband. She told investigators she knew fetching the apple was “weird” but explained, “This is the person I loved for 20 years.”

Alex Talcott was alive when his wife called 911 but died soon after, according to the report. Police found Kristen Talcott bleeding from her many wounds. She had cuts on her hands, arms, abdomen, shoulder, neck and chest. 

The couple’s children were not physically harmed during the violence, according to the report.

When two anti-Israel progressive Dartmouth College students were arrested last weekend, they claimed the college administration’s accusations that they had made violent threats were a smear.

In fact, the statement issued by the two students specifically violated the school’s policy on violent threats, as evidenced by the fact they edited the document after their arrest to soften the language.

Early Saturday morning, Dartmouth students Roan Wade and Kevin Engel, who were camping outside of college President Sian Leah Beilock’s residence, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing. The two are student leaders of the far-left Sunrise Movement. They had issued a document listing a series of demands, including that Dartmouth act against “Israeli apartheid by divesting the College’s endowment from all organizations that are complicit in apartheid and its apparatuses.”

The demands, which they called the “Dartmouth New Deal,” also include paying reparations to Native Americans, going carbon neutral, and cutting ties with the military-industrial complex.

“We are taking action now, but we will escalate. You have until the first day of the winter term to publicly address our demands and outline a plan to meet them. If you fail to do so, we will escalate and take further action,” they wrote.

The threat to “escalate” and “take further action” violated Dartmouth’s rules against threats, and as a result, the Hanover police were called.

“(T)he situation changed when two students … threatened in writing to ‘escalate and take further action,’ including ‘physical action,’ if their demands were not met,’” Beilock wrote.

In an open letter published in The Dartmouth, Wade and Engel denied they made any threats.

“The administration’s accusation that the demonstrators threatened violence is a lie. Beilock cited a decontextualized sentence from the Dartmouth New Deal as justification for the arrests,” they wrote.

However, the Sunrise Movement at Dartmouth’s own document showed it was edited two days after the arrests to soften the objectionable language.

“Sunrise is committed to nonviolent direct action, such as hosting vigils, sit-ins, and rallies. In this context, to escalate and take further action means that the organization will host larger events and mobilize a greater number of people in order to achieve the demands listed in the Dartmouth New Deal. (Edited October 30 at 2:40 p.m.)”

The incident comes as progressives organize anti-Israel marches, often featuring antisemitic rhetoric, on many of America’s most elite college campuses. The protests come in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, in which more than 1,400 people were murdered, and Hamas terrorists took hundreds more hostage.

The Dartmouth New Deal urges the university to embrace the views of the so-called “Palestine Solidarity Coalition, or PSC. The organization, of which Wade is a member, blames all of the Hamas violence targeting Jews on Israel.

“The root cause of this violence is apartheid, the institutionalized system of oppression and domination by one ethnic group over another,” the Coalition wrote. “Israel today is an apartheid state, designed to deny Indigenous Palestinians their democratic representation and civil rights.”

Casey Stockstill

Wade did not respond to a request for comment.

Wade’s position on Israel is similar to Dartmouth Associate Sociology Professor Casey Stockstill, one of hundreds of sociology professors who signed an open letter in response to Hamas’ deadly terror attacks. Stockstill and fellow academics wrote of the need to “contextualize” the murders, kidnappings, and beheadings committed by Hamas terrorists “in the context of 75 years of settler colonial occupation and European empire,” the letter stated.

Dartmouth has a history of antisemitism. In the 1940s, as European Jews were fleeing the horrors of the Nazi regime, then-President Ernest Hopkins told the New York Post the school had a policy of turning away Jewish students.

“We cut the quotas more on our Jewish applicants than we do the basis of applications from Anglo-Saxons,” Hopkins said. “I think if you were to let Dartmouth become predominantly Jewish, it would lose its attraction for the Jews … Dartmouth is a Christian college founded for the Christianization of its students.” 

It has been almost two months since GOP activist Alex Talcott was killed in his Durham home, and there are still no answers about what happened.

Talcott, 41, was stabbed in the neck and killed in the early morning hours of Aug. 26. His body was found by police in his garage, and the death is considered a homicide.

Talcott’s violent death made national news as those who knew and worked with him in politics publicly grieved. Former House Speaker William O’Brien, state director of the New Hampshire chapter of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and Chris Ager, current Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, both eulogized Talcott soon after the death was announced.

“He came to me many times just asking, ‘Hey Chris, how can I help?’ Never asking for anything in return. He was that kind of person. We’re really going to miss him a lot,” Ager said.

But in the weeks that have followed, officials have said nothing about the case. Republicans, particularly in the seacoast area, have filled the void with rumors and speculation, angering friends of Talcott and his family.

“Alex was a friend. He’d been a guest in my home. I’ve run past his house many times,” said former NHGOP state chair Fergus Cullen. “I have emails and text messages and even a voicemail from him on my phone. Something went terribly wrong. We shouldn’t be left to wonder what that was.”

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office told NHJournal the case is still under investigation. Michael Garrity, the spokesman for the state Department of Justice, said there will be a public report about Talcott’s death once the investigation is done, but he could not give a timeline on the investigation or report.

“At this point, the investigation into Mr. Talcott’s death remains active and ongoing, and it includes whether the person who stabbed Mr. Talcott acted in self-defense,” Garrity said.

Police and Garrity have said there is no danger to the community stemming from the case. No arrests have been made, and police know who stabbed Talcott.

Under New Hampshire law, a person may legally claim self-defense when using deadly force if they are faced with an aggressor who reasonably poses a deadly threat to that person or another third party. The state generally does not prosecute cases where self-defense is credibly raised as a possible explanation, avoiding trials in such instances. Whoever stabbed and killed Talcott may never be charged.

Since his death, little has been said publicly about Talcott. Friends and associates contacted by NHJournal have been reluctant to talk. Even information about his funeral and burial arrangements is not known. That is typically published in an obituary, though an internet search did not find one for Talcott. Obituaries are generally written by family members or by a funeral home employee with input from the family.

Talcott lived at the home with his wife, Kristin Talcott, and their three children.  

Kristin and Alex Talcott both graduated from Dartmouth College. Alex Talcott went into corporate law and was the CEO of New Constellation Capital Residential Real Estate and Venture Capital Investing, as well as an adjunct instructor in business law and finance at the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. 

A long-time GOP activist, Alex Talcott, made an unsuccessful run for state representative in 2022.

Kristin Talcott is a clinical social worker and therapist. 

Granite State college students enjoy greater freedom of speech at the University of New Hampshire than their peers at the prestigious Ivy League school, Dartmouth College.

The annual college rankings released this week by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, puts UNH third nationally, trailing only Michigan Tech and Auburn.

UNH President James W. “Jim” Dean Jr. said the school takes its responsibility to foster speech seriously.

“Free speech is one of the most fundamental American constitutional rights. As a public university, UNH protects and promotes this value by ensuring our students can be exposed to new and different ideas that will hopefully inspire growth and intellectual curiosity,” Dean said. “This new report from FIRE validates the work we have done and will continue to do to foster an environment where free speech can flourish.”

Meanwhile, Dartmouth, one of the most exclusive — and expensive — colleges in America, ranks near the bottom: 240 out of 248.

That’s a major drop-off for Dartmouth, which came in at 63 in 2021 and 83 in 2022.

According to data compiled by FIRE, a big reason behind that wide gap is UNH students don’t think it is acceptable to shut down controversial speakers, while Dartmouth students are OK with censorship.

FIRE’s Director of Polling and Analytics, Sean Stevens, said students at elite schools like Dartmouth, Harvard University (248), Northwestern (242), and Georgetown (245) are more inclined to prevent speakers they don’t like from being heard on campus The common denominator is those schools are predominately liberal

“There’s this elite culture to be tolerant, but most of those schools do poorly on the disruptive conduct survey,” Stevens said. 

As part of the review process, students were surveyed about how comfortable they felt speaking about controversial topics on campus and in class. They were also asked if shutting down speakers through protest, disruption, or even violence was ever acceptable.

“As you get more and more liberal on the spectrum (the students) are more likely to say those things are at least rarely acceptable,” Stevens said.

One of the findings: Many college students think shouting down a speaker is acceptable behavior, even at schools that rank highly. At UNH, just 44 percent of students said shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is always unacceptable. 

At Dartmouth, however, that dropped to 26 percent, meaning most students believe in stopping speakers they don’t like. That comes as no surprise to center-right students at Dartmouth. 

Last year, conservative journalist Andy Ngo’s scheduled in-person appearance at Dartmouth was canceled after a deluge of online threats from leftwing opponents. In 2020, more leftist threats of violence forced the cancellation of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Corky Messner’s scheduled speech on the need for border security to halt the flow of opioids into the U.S.

Stevens cited the Ngo and Messner events as reasons for Dartmouth’s poor ranking.

“They can’t undo the disinvitations, but they can do better,” Stevens said.

In contrast, UNH stood by a controversial group over objections from liberal students, Stevens said. In March, students staged a walkout after the Christian Legal Society student group planned a vigil for victims of a Tennessee school shooting. UNH liberal activists accused the Christian group of engaging in anti-transgender hate. The Tennessee shooter identified as transgender.

UNH also announced Wednesday that Dean is retiring as president on June 30, 2024.

Progressive social media star and former Dartmouth College student Jack Cocchiarella is settling the lawsuit he brought against one-time classmate Nathan Kim over allegations that Cocchiarella was a serial rapist. 

Lawyers for Cocchiarella and Kim informed the United States District Court in Concord last month they had reached an agreement through mediation sessions in December. The sides now have until Jan. 20 to file the settlement agreement in the federal court, which would include a stipulation that the case be dismissed.

The lawsuit accused Kim of spreading stories online that Cocchiarella raped and sexually assaulted women while he was a student at the Ivy League school. Cocchiarella has denied all accusations of sexual impropriety.

Cocchiarella claims Kim started an online harassment campaign using anonymous accounts on various social media platforms accusing Cocchiarella of rape.

“Kim individually and in concert with others has continued to propagate and publish the false statements and lies that Jack is a ‘rapist,’ ‘raped his classmates,’ ‘raped 6 women,’ ‘raped 8 women,’ ‘raped unconscious girls,’ and is ‘getting away with rape,’” the lawsuit stated.

The negative attention stirred by Kim’s posts threatened Cocchiarella’s lucrative political work, tarnished his reputation as he transfers to Columbia University, and even caused threats according to the lawsuit.

“To this day, Jack lives in fear for his life and safety as a result of the false statements and lies being spread by Kim,” the lawsuit states.

Cocchiarella’s attorney, Susan Stone, told NH Journal in August her client is innocent of any sexual violence.

“To be clear, Jack has never been accused of sexual assault and he has never been subject of a criminal or Title IX campus investigation,” Stone wrote in a letter to NH Journal. “He vehemently denies that he was subject to those allegations.”

The lawsuit claimed Kim’s harassment started after Cocchiarella confronted Congressman Madison Cawthorn when the North Carolina Republican appeared at Dartmouth College along with congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt.

Cocchiarella’s video of his confrontation with Cawthorn went viral and helped propel the student into a progressive influencer. Cocchiarella used his online fame to get high-profile political consulting jobs with Democrats like Florida’s Charlie Crist and Georgia’s Marcus Flowers.

According to a report in the Free Beacon, Crist’s campaign paid Cocchiarella’s consulting firm $2,250 for digital consulting. It got another $40,000 from the Flowers campaign. 

Cocchiarella also appeared on a YouTube television show for the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee founded by alleged sexual predator John Weaver. Cocchiarella was on the show to plug his own political podcast, Zoomed In.

Accusations against Cocchiarella came to light in August, when NHJournal spoke to one woman who claimed to have been harassed by the rising political star. The woman said Cocchiarella sexually harassed her and inappropriately touched her, earning Cocchiarella a letter from Dartmouth’s Title IX Office laying out a disciplinary course of action, and threatening further sanctions if Cocchiarella did not comply. The copy obtained by NHJournal included Cocchiarella’s apparent signature.

His behavior deteriorated over the course of a few weeks into stalking-type behavior and included unwanted touching, she said.

“What was scary is he said a lot of really misogynistic things,” she said.

The woman said Cocchiarella used his reputation as a progressive, feminist-ally in order to get close. At the same time, his actions frightened her, she said.

“How does he have this platform as a feminist?” she asked.

While NHJournal was reporting the story in August, the Dartmouth College Democrats Twitter account published a tweet claiming Cocchiarella was kicked out of the club in 2021 when several allegations became known on campus. The club later deleted that tweet, but a source familiar with the matter confirmed Cocchiarella had been expelled from the club over the allegations.

The club later published a follow-up disavowing any use of the tweet about Cocchiarella.

Cocchiarella has denied all wrongdoing and further claims he has never been investigated by Dartmouth’s Title IX Office.

If the Democrats had a secret weapon Tuesday during their surprise showing for the midterms, it may have been young voters acting as a seawall against the anticipated “Red Wave.” And that was especially true in the Granite State.

Votes are still being counted, but instead of handily losing control of both houses of Congress as expected, Democrats may be a few seats behind the GOP in the House and have a realistic chance of maintaining the current 50-50 tie in the Senate.

They were so key to the Democrats’ success, President Joe Biden gave Gen Z voters a shoutout during Wednesday’s post-election presser.

“I especially want to thank the young people of this nation,” Biden said during his White House remarks. “They voted to continue addressing the climate crisis, gun violence, their personal rights and freedoms, and student debt relief.”

In the fight for the state legislature, Gen Z voters helped cut the size of the GOP House majority down to just 203-197 — before recounts. Republicans, like House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn), said they are confident their majority will hold. “The voters of New Hampshire have spoken and have sent Republicans back into the majority in the House for the 2023-2024 term,” he said in a statement.

But the final outcome will be directly impacted by the youth vote.

Democrat-aligned organizations spent millions focusing on mobilizing the youth vote. One of those groups, NextGen America, spent $25 million on the election, according to its president, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. Those voters were natural targets for the continual messaging on abortion and fighting extremism from the Hassan, Kuster, and Pappas campaigns.

“Young people are relentlessly committed to building the infrastructure needed to harness the full power and potential of the largest and most diverse generation in American history,” Tzintzún Ramirez said. “From abortion access to economic justice, young people recognized the stakes and mobilized to address some of the most challenging issues our country has ever faced. Young people just sent a clear message: The future belongs to us–and there’s no room for hatred, greed, or fear in the country we will continue to build.” 

Part of NextGen’s plan was to find voters on college campuses, targeting 245 colleges nationwide. The group used direct mail, texts, calls, and influencers to reach close to 10 million young voters ahead of Tuesday’s election. The success was evident in Tuesday’s results.

“Our initial data from Youth Vote Indicator Precincts shows that young people NextGen registered or pledged to vote turned out at 6 points higher than young people overall during the early voting period. And early turnout among young voters in precincts organized by NextGen exceeded nationwide averages,” Tzintzún Ramirez said. 

In college towns like Durham, home of the University of New Hampshire, and Hanover, home to the Ivy League’s Dartmouth College, college students surged to the polls. The Granite State has the highest percentage of college students in its population in the country.

According to Durham officials, 1,446 people registered to vote on Tuesday, out of more than 5,900 total ballots cast. Most of those new voters were UNH students. As a result, Democrats won big. Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas scored nearly 4 to 1 margins over Republicans Don Bolduc and Karoline Leavitt respectively.

Carson Hansford, president of the UNH College Republicans, said the state party put time and money into getting out the vote in Durham, but could not match the intensity of the young Democrats.

“College campuses tend to be more liberal. That was proven again last night,” Hansford said.

In Hanover, close to 800 people registered to vote on Tuesday, again mostly students from Hanover, according to town officials. Griffin Mackey, a conservative Dartmouth student with the Dartmouth College Republicans, said voter sentiment in towns like Hanover did not reflect the reality of the rest of the state. Dartmouth students largely come from wealthy families that already skew liberal, he said.

“Dartmouth students are 1) not from New Hampshire and generally do not engage with the local community beyond their campus; 2) do not pay for food or rent, and 3) do not have cars or pay for gas,” Mackey said. “How on earth could Gen. Don Bolduc, or any other conservative candidate for that matter, appeal to those students?”

According to national exit polls, 63 percent of Gen Z and Millennial voters, aged 18 to 29, voted for Democrats. Just 35 percent backed the GOP.

Bolduc focused on economic issues impacting working families, like “heating or eating,” and most other GOP candidates hit the economy, record high inflation, and soaring fuel costs as part of their campaigns. Mackey said messages about economic insecurity generally fell on deaf ears in affluent Hanover.

“This is a foreign concept for many Dartmouth students who believe that the fossil fuel industry is evil and who want everyone to be vegan,” Mackey said.

Jack Cocchiarella, the progressive Gen Z Democratic activist accused of sexual harassment, is now suing a Dartmouth College student for allegedly spreading rumors about sexual assaults online. 

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Concord, targets Dartmouth student Nathan Kim. It claims Kim spread false stories online about Cocchiarella raping and assaulting several women on campus.

Cocchiarella, who has done paid political consulting for Democrats like Florida’s Charlie Crist and Georgia’s Marcus Flowers, has denied all accusations of any sexual impropriety. Cocchiarella further claims he has never been investigated by Dartmouth’s Title IX Office.

NHJournal spoke to one woman who said Cocchiarella sexually harassed her and inappropriately touched her. That incident resulted in Cocchiarella receiving a letter from Dartmouth’s Title IX Office laying out a disciplinary course of action and threatening further sanctions if Cocchiarella did not comply. The copy obtained by NHJournal included what appeared to be Cocchiarella’s signature.

As rumors about Cocchiarella swirled online last summer, the Dartmouth Democrats Twitter account published a tweet claiming Cocchiarella was kicked out of the club due to multiple allegations of sexual assault. That tweet was later taken down and the club issued a statement saying that it did not condone the use of the tweet. NHJournal contacted a source close to the situation who confirmed Cocchiarella was in fact kicked out over the accusations. 

Kim’s attorney, Benjamin King of Concord-based Douglas, Leonard & Garvey, declined to comment on the specific allegations laid out in the lawsuit.

Cocchiarella’s lawsuit alleges Kim started an online harassment campaign using anonymous accounts on various social media platforms accusing Cocchiarella of rape as he was gaining fame for his progressive views.

“Kim individually and in concert with others has continued to propagate and publish the false statements and lies that Jack is a ‘rapist,’ ‘raped his classmates,’ ‘raped 6 women,’ ‘raped 8 women,’ ‘raped unconscious girls,’ and is ‘getting away with rape,’” the lawsuit states.

The negative attention stirred by Kim’s posts has threatened Cocchiarella’s lucrative political career, tarnished his reputation as he transfers to Columbia University, and even caused threats according to the lawsuit.

“To this day, Jack lives in fear for his life and safety as a result of the false statements and lies being spread by Kim,” the lawsuit states.

Cocchiarella’s attorney, Susan Stone, told NHJournal in August her client is innocent of any sexual violence.

“To be clear, Jack has never been accused of sexual assault, and he has never been the subject of a criminal or Title IX campus investigation,” Stone wrote in a letter to NHJournal. “He vehemently denies that he was subject to those allegations.”

The lawsuit claims Kim’s harassment started after Cocchiarella confronted Congressman Madison Cawthorn when the North Carolina Republican made an appearance at Dartmouth College along with Republican congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt.

Cocchiarella’s video of his confrontation with Cawthorn went viral and helped propel Cocchiarella into becoming a progressive influencer. According to a report in the Free Beacon, Crist’s campaign has since paid Cocchiarella’s firm $2,250 for digital consulting. His firm got another $40,000 from the Flowers’ campaign. 

Cocchiarella also appeared on a YouTube television show for the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump political action committee founded by alleged sexual predator John Weaver. Cocchiarella was on the show to plug his own political podcast, Zoomed In.

The alleged victim who spoke to NHJournal said Cocchiarella used his status as a male feminist and progressive to ingratiate himself to her. His behavior deteriorated over a few weeks into stalking-type behavior and included unwanted touching.

“What was scary is he said a lot of really misogynistic things,” she said.

The woman told NHJournal she was shocked by Cocchiarella’s online persona as a feminist ally and progressive fighter when she feared him.

“How does he have this platform as a feminist?” she said.

Dartmouth College’s standing as a campus that supports diversity of opinion and expression fell again this year, down 20 places in the newest ranking of campus free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Earlier this month, FIRE released its findings from “the largest survey on student free expression ever conducted.”

“That so many students are self-silencing and silencing each other is an indictment of campus culture,” said FIRE Senior Research Fellow Sean Stevens. “How can students develop their distinct voices and ideas in college if they’re too afraid to engage with each other?”

Or, as the report concluded, “Sayonara, debate and disagreement; hello, campus kumbaya.”

New Hampshire’s Ivy League school pulled a Gentleman’s C in last year’s ranking, coming in at number 63 in the nation. But this year, Dartmouth dropped even lower, to number 83 — below the state universities of Idaho, Indiana, and Alabama.

And while the University of New Hampshire fares far better at number 16, which was a drop from number three last year.

“The University of New Hampshire remains steadfast in its commitment to the principles of free speech and academic freedom and are pleased to know FIRE recognizes our work to protect these freedoms while encouraging openness and civility,” said Erika Mantz, executive director for UNH Media Relations.

FIRE reports college students and faculty at schools across the country face extreme challenges to the free expression of ideas.

“Alarming proportions of students self-censor, report worry or discomfort about expressing their ideas in a variety of contexts, find controversial ideas hard to discuss, show intolerance for controversial speakers, find their administrations unclear or worse regarding support for free speech, and even report that disruption of events or violence are, to some degree, acceptable tactics for shutting down the speech of others,” the report states.

Dartmouth’s administration did not respond to a request for comment, but students who anonymously reported to FIRE say the school campus is ruled by “mob mentality” and students live in ideological echo chambers. According to FIRE, for every one conservative student, there are roughly 4.3 liberal students.

“Mob mentality situations occur all the time in a small campus like Dartmouth. From minimal things to huge issues, there is a main way of thinking that if you do not conform to, you are alienated,” one student said.

Another student said they feel uncomfortable confronting the racism they experience at the school.

“I am a person of color who often has to hear White people make comments that come off as tone deaf or performative and I do not feel comfortable saying something about it,” the student said.

One student told FIRE they are unable to express their support for the nation of Israel due to fears over anti-semitism.

“Sometimes feel stigma against saying that I support Israel. People paint it as being against human rights and I’ve personally seen antisemitism attached to the subject occur on college campuses,” the student said.

According to FIRE’s report, only 27 percent of Dartmouth students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is never acceptable. At UNH, that number is 44 percent. Both represent a minority of students.

FIRE’s Vice President of Research, Adam Goldstein, said schools need to set the example early in the school year that free speech is the norm on campus.

“FIRE’s top-ranked school, the University of Chicago, starts by sending letters to incoming students explaining the value of free expression,” Goldstein said. “Reinforcing those messages through orientation programs and official policy statements makes sure the message lands. Reforming any anti-speech policies, like restrictive protest or internet use policies, will show students that the administration is walking the walk. And FIRE is ready to help with all of that.”

FIRE got involved at Dartmouth last year after allied threats of protestors shut down a planned speech by conservative speaker Andy Ngo at Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth canceled the Jan. 20 event hosted by the campus chapters of the College Republicans, Turning Point USA, and Network of Enlightened Women, forcing it online because of unspecified “concerning information” from the Hanover police.

However, documents obtained by both NH Journal and FIRE indicate police never thought that the planned protest presented a credible threat.

Hanover Police Chief Charlie Dennis told FIRE in a letter that his department “did not make a recommendation to Dartmouth College regarding the January 20th event.”

Dartmouth responded to the controversy by charging the Dartmouth College Republicans Club a $3,600 security bill.

Goldstein said students should know they have options to protect their speech, and that FIRE will help.

“Students who feel their rights aren’t being respected can call FIRE for help–that’s the easy answer here and it’s never the wrong answer because even if we can’t help in a specific situation, we might have some ideas about who can. But generally speaking, the first step is going to be to go to the administrator, board, or student group that’s not respecting those rights and ask them to reconsider,” he said. “Most speech restraints are created by well-intentioned people focused on something other than freedom of speech and bringing speech to their attention can go a long way.”

A lawyer for Gen Z political social-media star Jack Cocchiarella, reportedly kicked out of the Dartmouth Democrats after several sexual assault accusations surfaced last year, told NHJournal Cocchiarella denied the story.

“To be clear, Jack has never been accused of sexual assault, and he has never been (the) subject of a criminal or Title IX campus investigation,” Cocchiarella’s attorney Susan Stone wrote to NHJournal. “He vehemently denies that he was subject to those allegations.”

Stone sent a letter to NHJournal this week asking the news outlet to publish a Cocchiarella-written op-ed so he can make his case disputing the allegations. Before NHJournal had a chance to respond to Stone’s letter, however, an assistant to Stone asked that the letter be “recalled.” No explanation was provided. 

Cocchiarella has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the story. NHJournal has invited the Democratic activist to appear on the outlet’s podcast to address the allegations.

NHJournal spoke to one woman who says she was sexually harassed by Cocchiarella last year. Despite Cocchiarella’s denials, she provided NHJournal with a copy of a letter from the Ivy League school’s Title IX office to Cocchiarella detailing her allegations. The letter handed down a form of discipline against Cocchiarella and threatened him with further action. Cocchiarella’s signature is on the letter obtained by NHJournal.

Stone claims that not only has there never been any investigation, but Cocchiarella left Dartmouth in good standing.

The woman who complained to Dartmouth’s Title IX office about Cocchiarella’s sexual harassment said this week she could not believe Cocchiarella is persisting in denials, calling them ridiculous.

“I honestly am speechless about it all,” the woman said. “Also, very interesting they’re claiming that Dartmouth has no record of a Title IX investigation as that is so categorically untrue.”

Stone’s letter claimed Cocchiarella was never investigated for sexual assault, and that the accusations stem from a political trolling operation to harm him as he gained fame for his progressive advocacy.

“Since October of last year, Jack has been the victim of political trolling,” Stone wrote. “As the (NHJournal) article observed, Jack has built a strong political platform, and he personally confronted Congressman Madison Cawthorn when Cawthorn appeared at Dartmouth. Two days after that very public confrontation, the false reports of sexual assault allegations (that never existed) against Jack began to appear online.”

Stone also disputed the claim that Cocchiarella was kicked out of the Dartmouth Democrats after the sexual assault allegations became known on campus. She claimed the tweet from the Dartmouth Democrats’ account stating Cocchiarella was kicked out because of the accusations was later deleted.

NHJournal contacted a source close to the situation who confirmed that Cocchiarella was in fact kicked out over the accusations.

UPDATE: This week, the Dartmouth Democrats Twitter account put out a statement distancing the group from the tweet in question, though the statement falls short of a denial:

“The @DartDems deleted a Tweet about Jack Cocchiarella that had been posted on July 28th, 2022 to their Twitter account. The Dartmouth Dems do not condone any use of that deleted Tweet.”

Stone claimed Cocchiarella had been subject to death threats in the wake of the accusations. She claimed “authorities” were working with Cocchiarella to uncover who was behind the accusations, but failed to say if that meant a law enforcement agency of any kind.

“The false reports have been devastating to Jack. He has been doxed and his life is being threatened. Jack has also suffered damage to his reputation,” Stone wrote.

Cocchiarella transferred from Dartmouth to Columbia University in recent months, and Stone said the accusation would make it hard for him to safely transition to another school.

It was not clear what impact the accusations have had on Cocchiarella’s professional life. As a rising star in the liberal media, Cocchiarella appears on podcasts and television shows. He also earns thousands as a Gen Z digital consultant for the likes of Georgia’s Marcus Flowers, the Democrat running against Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Florida Congressman Charlie Crist, who recently won the Democratic primary to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis in the fall.