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Embattled Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave, who is already the subject of a criminal investigation for alleged theft and abuse of office, could face another investigation into his tenure.

Brave denies any wrongdoing related to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s criminal investigation, which began last month. It is the second investigation into Brave’s conduct as sheriff this year after the Strafford County Commission hired an outside firm for an inquiry in January.

Now a well-placed source tells NHJournal that members of Strafford County’s State House delegation are considering getting involved. There is an effort to organize a delegation meeting to discuss and possibly vote to begin its own investigation.

“(They are) in the process of organizing a request for a delegation meeting to discuss opening a statutorily authorized investigation into any potential misdoings by elected or employed county officials,” the source said.

Under New Hampshire law, county delegations made up of state lawmakers have the authority to investigate the conduct of county officials. Under the provisions of RSA 24:17, the delegation can create an investigative committee that can summon witnesses and have them testify under oath.

Even without the headache of multiple investigations, Brave’s leadership as Strafford County Sheriff is running into difficulties. According to his department’s most recent budget report, Brave spent nearly 60 percent of his total $3.3 million annual budget in the first six months of the fiscal year. Brave has spent close to $2 million of his total in the first six months.

That included $244,000 for overtime pay, or 94 percent of the budget, in the first half of the year alone. The department is budgeted for $260,000 annually, leaving Brave with about $15,000 for the next six months. 

Brave has also spent 84 percent, or $388,000, of his budgeted $475,000 for retirement and $1,300 of $2,000 for unemployment, using 67 percent of the budget. Those expenses point to trouble keeping staff on the job.

In recent weeks, Brave made the criminal investigation public by telling reporters it is part of an escalation on the part of Commissioners George Maglaras, Robert Watson, and Deanna Rollo. Brave accused the trio of bullying him for political reasons. Brave even accused Maglaras of calling him a “token.”

Brave is reportedly under investigation by the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit for taking a female employee who is not his wife on a trip to Florida using taxpayer funds. Brave denied the accusation.

“They say I am abusing the travel budget, also not true,” Brave told the Foster’s Daily Democrat. “I have $18,000 a year for travel in the budget, and I have been using it to travel to other states where the sheriff’s departments are more progressive than here, to learn how to better involve us in the community.”

Commissioners hired Municipal Resources Inc. in January, a few weeks after Brave’s wife, Jamie Brave, was arrested for DUI in Portsmouth in December. The MRI report has not been made public, though Brave has used it to attack the commissioners, saying it was evidence his fellow Democrats were out to get him.

The commissioners pushed back in recent days, accusing Brave of leaking confidential information from the MRI in an effort to mislead the public.

“We are disheartened that Sheriff Brave would choose to go on a publicity tour using parts of the MRI report to defend himself in the totally separate Attorney General criminal investigation,” the commissioners said in a letter.

Embattled Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is accusing County Commission Chair George Maglaras of being a racist for allegedly calling the state’s first African American sheriff a “token.”

Brave told the Rochester Voice Maglaras called him “the token Black guy, and the token’s gonna be up soon.”

Brave is under investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office Public Integrity Unit for allegedly using public money to pay for a Florida trip with a female employee who is not his wife. Brave took the unusual step of revealing news of the investigation to the press, something typically not done unless and until charges are filed.

Brave insists the investigation is a result of political bullying by Maglaras and the other commissioners, Robert Watson and Deanna Rollo. Brave and the three commissioners are all Democrats. Brave insists he is a victim of the commission’s political persecution because he will not give in to their pressure.

Reading the public commission meeting minutes sheds some light on the tension between the commissioners and Brave, and the “political bullying” revolves around money. The commission, led by Maglaras, initially blocked Brave’s attempts to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle for his department this spring. The reason given: Brave’s poor financial management.

Brave’s department has an annual budget of more than $3 million, and Brave’s spending of taxpayer dollars is already outpacing his approved allocation, according to Maglaras’s comments during the May 4 meeting.

“Chairman Maglaras acknowledged (the motorcycle) was listed in the 2023 budget, but is unsure how to justify the expense when the Sheriff’s Office budget is already over expended again,” the meeting minutes stated.

Though the board initially balked at the expense, the motorcycle purchase was approved last month on the condition Brave gets his financial house in order. If he doesn’t, the commission promised they would. 

“(T)he Commissioners agreed to the purchase and that if the Sheriff’s budget is not brought in line with the approved budget, they would look for other items to make up the difference,” the June 8 meeting minutes stated.

Until recently, Brave had additional income from a lucrative contract between his department and Frisbee Memorial Hospital, where Brave’s wife, Jamie, was Frisbie’s former Chief Nursing Officer at the time.

According to Brave, the commission’s probe into his department started soon after his wife was arrested for DUI in December. NHJournal uncovered the fact Brave was in the car at the time of the arrest and was too intoxicated to drive himself. 

“After her arrest, the commissioners took it upon themselves to hire MRI to do a private probe,” Brave told the Rochester Voice. “They tried to say I used my office to get her off, and I was driving and switched (seats) with her. There were rumors I was PC’d, that I was arrested.”

Brave denied he was driving the night of his wife’s arrest. A police report obtained by NHJournal indicated a police officer drove him to a friend’s house and released him to the friend’s custody, given his level of intoxication.

Maglaras is reportedly a witness to the MRI probe and, presumably, the criminal investigation. Brave is now claiming Maglaras spread a false story that Brave lied about his whereabouts on the night of the arrest. Brave told the Rochester Voice he never claimed to be home with his children while his wife was driving drunk, even though he says that is the story Maglaras told.

Brave also has the advantage of some powerful political allies. He is represented by the influential and well-connected Democratic law firm of Shaheen and Gordon — the “Shaheen” being Billy Shaheen, husband of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

And despite the open investigation, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington still lists Brave on the endorsements page of her Warmington for Governor website.

Rep. Aidan Ankarberg (R-Rochester) said he and other members of the Strafford County delegation are being kept in the dark about Brave and the investigations, as is the public. Given the fact that three elected members of the county commission are involved in investigating the elected sheriff, people have a right to know what is going on, Ankarberg argued.

“I certainly have many doubts about the integrity of the elected officials in Strafford County and their behavior, and I imagine many other residents feel the same way. We need transparency and fast,” Anakberg said.

Anakberg is also troubled by the allegation that Maglaras called Brave a “token,” and people need to know the truth about what was said or not said.

“The matter involving the alleged use of the phrase ‘token Black guy’ harkens back to Andru Volinsky referring to Ryan Terrell using the same phrase when he dared to enter the public policy arena and join the Board of Education. Same words, why would there be a different outcome?” Anakberg said.

Volinsky was then running in the Democratic primary for governor and saw his support crater following that incident. The state’s NAACP chastised Volinsky for the comments. He soon issued a public apology before going on to lose the primary to Dan Feltes.

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave and his deputies are getting the boot from Frisbie Memorial Hospital as the Rochester healthcare facility is moving its security staff in-house. Hospital administrators say it’s about money, but observers suspect the recent scandals involving Brave and his wife, Jamie, also played a role.

Brave’s contract ends on July 22, according to a letter sent to Brave this week. The hospital’s Chief Financial Officer Matt Untch told Brave the reason for the termination is finances.

“I am writing to inform you that Frisbie Memorial Hospital will be terminating our contract with the Strafford County Sheriff’s Office effective July 22nd, 2023, due to budgetary constraints and improvements to Security staffing,” Untch wrote. 

The contract with Frisbie is worth up to $100,000 annually for Brave’s department. Brave thanked the hospital administration for the contract in place for the last year and a half.

“I would like to thank the Frisbie Hospital administration and staff for utilizing my office as a resource and a tool during a time of need,” Brave said in a statement. “The SCSO team will always be available in the future to your organization if needed.”

News of the cancellation comes months after Mark Brave’s wife, Jamie Brave, left her job as Frisbie’s Chief Nursing Officer following a drunk driving arrest in December. According to police reports, Mark Brave was a passenger in the couple’s Mercedes at the time of his wife’s arrest, but he was too intoxicated to drive home. Police took the sheriff to a friend’s home nearby while his wife was booked.

The hospital has stated Jamie Brave was not involved in the original negotiations that gave the six-figure contract to her husband’s department. However, a whistleblower recently told NH Journal that Jamie Brave was key to initially bringing the sides together.

Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for Frisbie, Ellen Miller, did not mention the DUI arrest as a reason for the contract termination. Instead, she said hiring Brave’s department was always meant to be a temporary fix until the hospital could hire more of its own staff.

“Frisbie’s contract with the sheriff’s office, while valuable, was intended to be a short-term solution. As of this April, we are pleased to share that our hospital security team is once again fully staffed and able to provide 24-hour coverage,” Miller said. “By moving security services back in-house, we are able to employ full-time security staff who receive health benefits.”

According to Miller, the contract was necessary to give the hospital time to find qualified people to work as in-house security. However, the hospital previously maintained it contracted with Brave’s department to boost security following a 2020 incident that left a hospital security staffer fatally injured. Rick Semo, a Frisbie security guard, was assaulted by Tyler Thurston outside the hospital’s emergency room in December 2020. Semo died days later from his injuries.

Raising more questions is the fact that, at the time Frisbie was giving Brave’s department the $100,000-a-year contract, the hospital’s parent company was recommending cuts to the security team. 

Weeks after Semo’s death, an executive with Frisbie’s parent company, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare, issued a report recommending the cuts to security staff. To cut security, according to an internal report obtained by NHJournal. HCA’s Kat Kemper’s report stated Frisbie needs only one security officer on duty at all times, 24/7, and one supervisor on duty 40 hours a week.

The Frisbie contract was not Brave’s only security contract. The Strafford County Sheriff’s Office also provides a deputy to the Farmington School District to serve as a School Resource Officer/Truancy Officer.

Brave, a Democrat who is New Hampshire’s first elected Black sheriff, ran for office on a platform opposing placing police officers in schools.

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave’s lucrative contract with Frisbie Memorial Hospital was reached after an internal report recommended cutting back on security at the facility.

How did it happen? Critics say it didn’t hurt that Brave’s wife Jamie is Frisbie’s former Chief Nursing Officer.

Jamie Brave left her job at Frisbie in December, days after being arrested for allegedly driving drunk after a Christmas party. Mark Brave was also in the couple’s Mercedes at the time of the stop and deemed too intoxicated to drive for his wife. Both Brave’s had a reported blood alcohol level of more than 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 percent.

Hospital officials tell NHJournal there is no connection between Jamie Brave’s senior position at the hospital and the administration’s decision to override recommendations in order to hire her husband.

“We have a signed conflict of interest statement from (Jaimie Brave),” said Ellen Miller, the hospital’s marketing and communications director.

Frisbie started a contract with Brave last year that maxes out at $100,000 annually.

Sources who contacted NHJournal, however, said while Jamie Brave was not in the room during any negotiations between hospital administration and Mark Brave, she was instrumental in bringing the two sides together.

Mark Brave did not respond to requests for comment.

Miller told NHJournal that Mark Brave was contracted to provide extra security in response to an incident that left a hospital security staffer fatally injured. Rick Semo, a Frisbie security guard, was assaulted by Tyler Thurston outside the hospital’s emergency room in December 2020. Semo died days later from his injuries.

While it might make sense for the hospital to add security staff to the campus in the wake of Semo’s death, in reality, Frisbie’s parent company, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare, wanted to cut security in the weeks after the attack, according to an internal report obtained by NHJournal.

The Physical Security Assessment by HCA’s Kat Kemper and sent to former Frisbie CEO Jeff Cionti and CFO Matt Untch on Jan. 12, 2021, stated Frisbie should cut its number of full-time equivalent unarmed security staffers down to 5.2 full-time employees.

Kemper’s assessment stated the hospital was considered low-risk and needed only one security officer on duty around the clock and one supervisor on duty 40 hours a week. Sources say the hospital followed that recommendation for staffing levels, with deputies on campus supplementing the one staffer.

The report also stated there were security risks in the hospital’s labor and delivery department. The security staff did not have the ability to monitor the department electronically, and the hospital was placing non-labor and delivery patients into the department. In addition, Kemper’s report stated a teenager placed on a “hold” was in a room inside the same department as newborn infants and mothers. “Hold” is a term typically used for people in custody for a mental health crisis.

Frisbie has since announced plans to close its labor and delivery department. Pregnant women will be diverted to Portsmouth Regional Hospital for healthcare services.

Kemper’s report also found the hospital had not completed an annual risk assessment for infant security and pediatric security.

Miller said she was unaware of the report’s existence when contacted by NHJournal.

Sources tell NHJournal the hospital is currently understaffed when it comes to security, even with the addition of deputies from Brave’s department. The security situation puts staff and patients at risk, the sources, said and puts security staffers in the position of having to use force more often in potentially violent situations.

While security contracts like the one at Frisbie are common for New Hampshire sheriff departments, Brave’s department has just two: The Frisbie contract and a contract with the Farmington School District to provide a deputy to serve as a School Resource Officer/Truancy Officer.

Brave, a Democrat who is New Hampshire’s first elected Black sheriff, ran on a platform opposing police officers in schools.