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Former Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave earned at least seven years in prison for the multitude of lies he spun out to cover up his thefts and affairs, prosecutors say.

“The truthfulness of law enforcement officers, and the sanctity of their oath to tell the truth in official matters, is central to the concept of ordered liberty in the State of New Hampshire,” Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham and Assistant Attorney General David Lovejoy wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Monday.

Brave, New Hampshire’s first elected Black sheriff and a former rising star in the state Democratic Party, torched his career when he was caught stealing taxpayer money to fund multiple extramarital affairs. Brave was given multiple opportunities to show remorse and tell the truth, prosecutors say, but he chose his own path.

“Instead, during the investigation into the defendant’s conduct, the defendant publicly and repeatedly accused the State and other local government officials of conspiring to pervert justice and persecute the defendant without any factual or legal basis – motivated, the defendant claimed, by base political vendettas and racial biases,” Lovejoy and Fincham wrote.

“Throughout the investigation and prosecution, and in an effort to conceal his charged crimes and other frauds he perpetrated upon this Honorable Court, the defendant chose to repeatedly lie to the State, chose to repeatedly lie to the Strafford County Grand Jury, and chose to repeatedly lie to this Honorable Court – all in an effort to avoid and pervert the system of justice that he was sworn to uphold.”

Brave is scheduled to be sentenced this month in Strafford Superior Court on two felony counts of perjury, the only charges in his plea agreement yet to be resolved. Brave pleaded guilty in February to the perjury counts as well as charges of theft by deception, and falsifying physical evidence. 

The plea deal allows Brave to get suspended sentences for the theft and falsifying evidence convictions, but the perjury Brave committed during his testimony before a Grand Jury in 2023 is a different matter. Lovejoy and Fincham argue Brave knew what he was doing when he swore to tell the truth during that testimony.

“The defendant then spent approximately one hour and 45 minutes lying about virtually every aspect of his repeated thefts – sometimes repeating old lies, sometimes telling new ones, and sometimes attempting to reconcile differing lies. A complete accounting of all of the defendant’s material lies to the Grand Jury would be monumental. The aggregated lies in the five perjury indictments in this case provide just a sampling of the contempt for the truth, for the sanctity of the defendant’s oath, and for the authority and solemnity of the Strafford County Grand Jury that so permeated the defendant’s testimony,” they wrote.

Monday’s sentencing memorandum will likely inspire a response from Brave and his attorney, Leif Becker, ahead of the sentencing hearing. The state wants Brave to get 3.5 to 7 years in prison on each perjury conviction, and wants those sentences to run consecutively, not concurrently.

According to Lovejoy and Fincham, Brave is beyond hope of rehabilitation and needs prison to punish his lies, to restore public trust in law enforcement, and to discourage other public officials from following his example.

“The sentence in this case must aid to repair the damage done by the defendant’s crimes to the public perception of the integrity of the criminal justice system and government institutions generally, including assuring the public that law enforcement officials (and other individuals) are sufficiently deterred from undermining the integrity of proceedings by committing Perjury,” the prosecutors wrote.

There were at least three women Brave was romancing with taxpayer funds, according to court records. Monday’s filing makes clear his lies and fraud extended to his paramours. One woman, Kenisha Epp Schmidt, gave Brave $2,300 so he could help her buy a used car. But that deal followed the typical Brave playbook for money and relationships.

“She had given the defendant $2,300.00 to help with purchasing a new car because she trusted him at the time, but the defendant never delivered the car and always had excuses for why there was no car and why he could not give her the money back. Ultimately, Schmidt had to file a police report with the Dover Police Department concerning the defendant’s actions,” Fincham and Lovejoy wrote. 

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave (D) is not going to jail for allegedly lying and stealing while on bail for allegedly lying and stealing.

At least, not yet.

Brave, 38, was set to appear in Rockingham Superior Court on Tuesday to face a bail hearing. Prosecutors say he lied about his income and violated his bail by moving out of state. But the sheriff still had no defense lawyer when he appeared in court Tuesday. Judge Daniel St. Hilaire pushed the bail hearing back to Dec. 12 to give Brave time to finalize his representation.

Brave said he is in the process of hiring attorney Leif Becker.

Prosecutors say Brave moved to Massachusetts days after he was ordered to stay in New Hampshire as part of the bail conditions in his theft and perjury case. Brave illegally collected more than $10,000 in salary for his elected sheriff’s position, according to prosecutors. 

Elected officials must reside in the state where they serve. Brave isn’t clocking in as sheriff since being charged, but he is collecting his salary while on administrative leave. 

Brave also lied about the money he got for selling his Dover home, prosecutors say. Brave claimed he didn’t clear enough money from the $1.5 million sale to pay for defense lawyers as planned. Debts and divorce expenses took most of the money, he said. 

But prosecutors say instead of paying a retainer to a law firm as he claimed he would, Brave bought a 1968 Porsche and prepaid a year’s worth of rent, about $50,000, on an apartment in Massachusetts soon after the sale went through.

Last month, St. Hilaire revoked the public defender assigned to Brave since Brave allegedly lied about being unable to pay for his own lawyer.

Brave was charged with theft and perjury last summer for allegedly stealing $19,000 in county money to fund his extramarital affairs with multiple girlfriends.

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is facing his arraignment on eight felony charges this week with confidence and determination.

But with no legal counsel.

Brave, on leave from his job since he was charged with allegedly stealing $19,000 in taxpayer money to fund his secret love life, still has no attorneys representing him. But he hopes to close the sale on his $1.1 million four-bedroom Dover home in time to pay lawyers.

“I plan to rehire Shaheen and Gordon on Friday, following the final closing on the sale of my house,” Brave told Foster’s Daily Democrat. “I have a call into them and am hoping they will represent me on Thursday, and I can settle up with them on Friday after the sale has been finalized and I have funds wired.”

As of late Tuesday afternoon, court records showed no lawyers had entered an appearance to represent Brave. 

Attorneys with the politically well-connected Shaheen and Gordon law firm represented Brave earlier this year while the state attorney general and local police were investigating Brave’s behavior. But that relationship seemed to have taken a break before New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella charged him.

Brave’s case was preemptively moved to the Rockingham Superior Court to avoid any potential conflict of interest in the Strafford Superior Court. Brave’s arraignment is scheduled for Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

The home Brave shared with his wife, Jamie Brave, is listed for sale with a $1,150,000 price tag. Real estate websites indicate a sale is pending. Records on file with the Strafford County Registry of Deeds showed Brave and his wife are not married at this time. Janie Brave goes by her maiden name, Jamie Spencer, in the records. 

Brave is accused of using county money for travel to Florida, Maryland, and Boston to spend time with different women. At one point, when Brave was confronted with video evidence that he used taxpayer funds for a romantic weekend with one woman in Boston, Brave was unable to recall her name, according to court records.

“Her name is … um … Let me see, I forget which one this is. I’ve been dating a lot of people,” Brave testified before the grand jury.

Brave is accused of stealing the money and lying to the grand jury. He is charged with eight felonies, including theft, perjury, and falsifying evidence, and could be sentenced to up to 64 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

County officials contacted the attorney general this spring when irregularities with Brave’s spending were discovered. Brave has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, blaming the accusations on political bullying from the county commissioners.

Like Brave, all three elected commissioners, George Maglaras, Robert Watson, and Deanna Rollo, are Democrats. At one point, Brave accused Maglaras of racism. Brave told the Rochester Voice that Maglaras called him “the token Black guy, and the token’s gonna be up soon.”

Brave is New Hampshire’s first Black elected sheriff, taking office in 2020 on promises of police reform. However, The Boston Globe reported this month Brave misrepresented his education credentials and law enforcement experience when he ran for office.

Brave claimed to have completed a master’s degree in forensic psychology, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in forensic psychology. However, The Globe found Brave did not earn any of those degrees and that he was never even enrolled in SNHU’s forensic psychology program.