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Berlin Police are conducting an internal investigation into how they handled a call warning officers about Michael Gleason Jr. two days before he murdered his estranged wife, Sandra Marisol Fuentes Huaracha.

Berlin Police Chief Jeff Lemoine acknowledged Thursday that someone called the department on the morning of July 4 to report that Gleason had made “concerning comments” about Fuentes and himself, Lemoine said in a statement.

Gleason, 50, murdered Fuentes, 25, on July 6 inside the La Casita Mexican restaurant in Berlin, where she worked. He then took his shotgun into a bathroom and killed himself, according to reports.

“We are reviewing our own practices and procedures to determine whether there are steps we can take to prevent such incidents from ever happening again here in Berlin,” the statement read.

Amanda Grady Sexton, Director of Public Affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said Fuentes’ murder needs to finally wake up people in power to enact reforms that will keep victims of domestic violence safe.

“It shouldn’t take another homicide to get the attention of those with the power to prevent it. Decision-makers must stop talking around the issue and start listening to victims, as well as the advocates and experts who support them. The time for meaningful reform is long overdue,” Grady Sexton said.

Executive Councilor Joe Kenney (R-Unity), Executive Councilor John Stephen (R-Manchester), and Executive Councilor Janet Stevens (R-Rye) all say it’s time to find out why New Hampshire failed Marisol Fuentes.

“We have to look at every single circumstance that was known to every single person involved in the system, that is supposedly there to protect people like Marisol,” Stephen said. “The system failed her, and we cannot tolerate this happening again.”

Gleason was out on $5,000 cash bail at the time of the murder, despite being charged in April with kidnapping, sexual assault, theft, and domestic violence after Fuentes went to Berlin Police to report her husband’s abuse, according to available records. 

That low cash bail amount was set by Magistrate Stephanie Johnson.

Days before the murder, a different woman was granted a stalking petition on July 1 by the district court in Berlin against Gleason after she alleged he sexually assaulted her several times.

Stevens is troubled by the fact that the Berlin Police do not appear to have acted after receiving a call on July 2 that Fuentes might be in danger. “When someone makes a threat, you need to act,” Stevens said.

Gleason’s release on the violent charges sparked calls for Johnson to resign. Stevens told NHJournal that whatever happened inside the Berlin Police Department does not change the fact that Gleason should never have been released after the April charges.

“He never should have been on the street to begin with,” Stevens said. “What the hell was he doing out on bail?”

Kenney, who represents Berlin, said people have come to him since the murder-suicide to tell him of alarming interactions with Gleason in the days before the murder. At least one of those incidents resulted in a call to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department, Kenney said.

Kenney and Stephen are bringing Attorney General John Formella, New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, and Department of Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn into a meeting with the Executive Council next week to begin their own review of how Fuentes ended up dead despite the many red flags.

“We need to know the processes,” Kenney said. “We need to put the pieces of the puzzle together and find out what went wrong.”

Grady Sexton said too many women are falling through the cracks in the system, while men with a documented pattern of abuse are being allowed to walk free. 

“For too long, state and local agencies have responded to these tragedies with finger-pointing and statements instead of real solutions. Despite one domestic violence homicide after another in New Hampshire, little meaningful change has followed. New Hampshire cannot continue to tout itself as the safest state in the nation while women and children remain unsafe in their own homes,” Grady Sexton said. 

Stevens said everyone needs to know they can do something for people in crisis. The New Hampshire Rapid Response program, reached at 1-833-710-6477, is available 24/7 and will send a mobile team to people in extreme mental health or addiction crisis.

There’s also the 988 system, where people can call or text to reach one of 200 crisis centers across the country.

These are resources beyond calling 911 that anyone can use in an emergency, Stevens said.

“Anyone can call the crisis response team. We’ve got to focus on never allowing this to happen again,” Stevens said.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office issued a statement Thursday that it is monitoring the Berlin Police Department’s internal investigation.

​“The New Hampshire Department of Justice is treating the recent and tragic domestic violence-related homicide in Berlin with the utmost seriousness. We are actively gathering all relevant information, including monitoring the results of the Berlin Police Department’s ongoing internal investigation, and are working in close coordination with the New Hampshire State Police, the Coos County Attorney’s Office, and other appropriate partners to fully examine the circumstances of this case,” the statement read.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte pushed to create the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, which is now looking at the murder and the circumstances surrounding Gleason and Fuentes. MacDonald appointed ​​Circuit Court Administrative Judge Ellen Christo and Associate Supreme Court Justice Melissa Countway to review the case as well.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte says she agrees that Magistrate Stephanie Johnson should resign, joining a growing chorus of voices who want the court-appointed official to face the consequences of her recent bail rulings.

The calls for Johnson to step down began on Monday when Republican Executive Councilors Joe Kenney and John Stephen publicly released a letter they sent to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald and Administrative Judge Ellen Christo, urging them to immediately remove Johnson from her position.

“The release of this individual, who subsequently committed such a heinous act, represents a profound failure in our system that endangered lives and eroded trust in our judiciary,” Kenney and Stephen wrote. 

On Tuesday, fellow GOP Councilor Janet Stevens (R-District 3) joined the cause.

“Magistrate Stephanie Johnson must resign. Since she was sworn into office in December 2024, she has failed to protect the citizens of NH,” Stevens posted on social media. “In February, she released a man who later stabbed a stranger in Manchester. Five months later, an innocent 25-year-old woman is murdered by her former husband, who had been charged with kidnapping, domestic violence, and sexual assault, and granted bail by Johnson. Enough is enough.”

Gleason, 50, murdered his estranged wife, Sandra Marisol Fuentes Huaracha, 25, last week while she was working at the La Casita Mexican restaurant in Berlin. After gunning her down inside the restaurant, Gleason turned the shotgun on himself. At the time of the murder, Gleason was on bail on charges of kidnapping, domestic violence, sexual assault, and theft against Fuentes Huaracha.

MacDonald has already announced that both Christo and Associate Supreme Court Justice Melissa Countway are reviewing the Gleason case to identify red flags that court officials, such as Johnson, may have missed.

Johnson was appointed in December as one of New Hampshire’s first bail magistrates, a position created in yet another attempt to fix the failed bail reforms passed by a previously GOP-led legislature and signed by Gov. Chris Sununu. Magistrates like Johnson were tasked with hearing bail requests in the absence of a judge when one was unavailable.

Ayotte made fixing bail reform a top priority in her first term, and the changes she got through the legislature include the elimination of the bail magistrate system.

“I agree this magistrate should resign and, in fact, I advocated for eliminating all the magistrates in the stronger bail law that goes into effect in September so we can keep violent offenders and domestic abusers off our streets,” Ayotte told NHJournal. “My heart goes out to Marisol’s loved ones and the entire Berlin community, and I will continue fighting alongside our legislature to protect victims.”

House Republican leaders also called for Johnson’s resignation and highlighted Democratic opposition to some of Ayotte’s reform proposals.

“To be abundantly clear, incidents like these are why House Republicans passed, and Gov. Ayotte signed, commonsense bail reform, which will take full effect on September 21, 2025,” said Deputy House Majority Leader Joe Sweeney (R-Salem).

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that we keep dangerous criminals behind bars until their day in court. Yet Democrats stood in our way at every turn, even pushing a reckless amendment to forbid bail commissioners from reviewing prior convictions. Democrats would rather shield repeat offenders than protect law-abiding Granite Staters.”

In Berlin, the murder-suicide hit the community hard. The issue of Johnson’s handling of the case was first raised by Kenney, who represents the North Country community on the Executive Council.

“People just ask me how could this happen to a vivacious, young 25-year-old who had everything to live for and had in front of her, and it was all taken away because of a court system that basically gives a limited bail amount to this estranged husband,” Kenney said at last week’s council meeting.

On Tuesday, Mayor Robert Cone posted a copy of the Kenney-Stephen letter on his Facebook page with a two comment: “Absolutely agree.”

While removing Johnson from overseeing bail cases would be satisfying, Republicans privately acknowledged it’s also redundant. The new bail law requires all cases to be heard by judges; magistrates will be excluded from the process. Pressing for Johnson to resign, they say, is the right way to promote accountability and signal others in the judicial system that egregious rulings will come with consequences.

“Our citizens deserve better—no more delays, no more tragedies,” Sweeney said Tuesday. “The resignation of Magistrate Johnson is not about politics—it is the only way to restore faith in our justice system.”

New Hampshire’s embattled Human Rights Commission (HRC) is getting two new members and, according to Gov. Kelly Ayotte, their first priority is reforming the failing agency.

The Republican governor told reporters after Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting that it’s past time to get the HRC functioning after a damning audit by the Office of Legislative Budget Assistant earlier this year. The report found unresolved cases that were years, and in some cases, decades old. One pending case dates back to the Reagan administration.

The audit also found the understaffed office and its poorly trained investigators have been mismanaged by leadership for years.

“I’ve been quite clear that those audit findings are unacceptable, and where we are right now with the Human Rights Commission is completely unacceptable,” Ayotte told NHJournal.

The Executive Council confirmed business leader Ray Pinard to the commission on Wednesday, and Ayotte nominated Dr. Stewart Levenson to another seat. Under the law creating the agency, Human Rights Commission members are appointed by the governor, and they are responsible for overseeing the staff, including the position of executive director.

But that’s hard to do, critics say, when Executive Director Anhi Malachi has gone AWOL.

Malachi, who’s been the HRC’s director since 2018, has rarely been in the office since last summer. She reportedly suffered a heart attack and has been on medical leave through January of this year. However, after returning to work part-time for a couple of weeks, Malachi again took leave and continues to be out of the office and incommunicado.

Emails obtained by NHJournal through a Right to Know request indicate Malachi is still not communicating with the HRC staff, including current Interim Executive Director Katrina Taylor. Malachi’s lack of communication with her office dates back to the summer, based on the emails. 

After informing staff through an email on July 27, 2024, that she would be out for an extended period, no Malachi emails appeared until January of this year.

It’s not clear how much Malachi worked until she went out on leave again for medical reasons. It’s also unclear whether Malachi informed any staff about her second leave. Taylor, who has been running the agency through the LBA audit, did not find out until Commissioner Elizabeth Asch informed her on Feb. 4, according to the emails.

Malachi’s absence is even more puzzling — and perhaps ethically questionable — after the HRC staff found out last fall that Malachi had been chairing a volunteer board for the city of Concord the entire time.

“Staff brought to my attention the attached and expressed concerns (and disappointment) that it appears Anhi is semi-working in other capacities but is seemingly unwilling or unable to communicate (by way of simple check-in) with HRC,” Taylor wrote to Asch on Nov. 14.

The attached document was a copy of the Sept. 30 meeting minutes of Concord’s Diversity Equity Inclusion Justice and Belonging (DEIJB) Committee. They included a letter from Malachi explaining her temporary absence from the DEIJB, and her promise to continue working with the committee even as she was out of contact with the HRC, where she was paid to work.

Some Republicans say the HRC’s lack of action and the subsequent lack of negative outcomes prove that the entire agency should be shut down. Ayotte doesn’t agree. She’s trying to fix the agency within the current law. She’s keeping the HRC funded in her budget proposal, and she’s waiving hiring freezes to get three more investigators on the job addressing the caseload backlog.

Asked about the HRC’s performance and whether senior staff should be fired, Ayotte noted that the agency doesn’t answer to the governor or the Executive Council. She also hinted that firing would be her preferred solution.

“If (the executive director) were a governor and council appointment, and perhaps that’s a proposal that the legislature might consider as well, then we obviously would take a different tactic here,” Ayotte said.

Ayotte pointed to the appointment of Pinard as a sign that Granite Staters can expect vigorous action — and soon. Pinard is known for turning around businesses, and he has pledged to put in 500 hours of his time to get the HRC reform started. 

“He offered to serve on the HRC following the release of the alarming LBA audit, and I applaud him for stepping up, offering to serve the State of New Hampshire, and willing to put in the time to overhaul the HRC, which he estimates will be 500 hours of his time. A self-described ‘change agent,’ he’s exactly what we need on the HRC right now,” said Executive Councilor Janet Stevens (R-District 3).

Reached Wednesday, Levenson said if confirmed, he wants to focus on building better policies and procedures that will serve the people of New Hampshire for years to come.

“It’s an important job, and unfortunately, I think there have been some issues in the past and that going forward we have to do better, and I think we can,” Levenson said.