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Disgraced Strafford County Democrat Sheriff Mark Brave, facing a 24-hour deadline from the county commission, announced Monday night he would step down from his post and accept paid leave while his criminal case moves forward.

The county’s three-member commission voted earlier Monday to give Brave until noon Tuesday to go on paid administrative leave or face an expulsion vote by members of the county delegation of elected representatives.

Monday night, he caved.

“As I continue to ensure that you all are informed of processes, I wanted to let you know I have made the difficult decision to take administrative leave while the investigation, due diligence, and the legal process continues,” Brave said in a statement. “While I maintain that I am innocent, and none of my spending of [sic] out of state line items was due to deceive the county or the people of Strafford County, I do want to make sure that the wonderful team at SCSO is able to function without added stressors to their already difficult positions.”

Brave added, “This is a personal fight that should not impact the office.”

Chair George Maglaras said during Monday morning’s hearing it was the third time the commission had asked Brave to place himself on leave since they became aware of the criminal investigation.

Brave was arrested last week on eight felony charges stemming from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit investigation into his alleged misuse of a county credit card. Brave is charged with theft, falsifying evidence, and five counts of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury.

Brave is free on personal recognizance bail. However, the bail conditions make it all but impossible for him to do his job, Maglaras said. Brave cannot have contact with several members of his staff, nor can he contact members of the county administration staff. He is also prohibited from possessing a gun. All of the people he is prohibited from talking with are considered witnesses in the upcoming criminal case.

“In the opinion of the commission, it is impossible for Sheriff Brave to exercise his constitutional role to run that office when he can’t have contact with his staff. It’s as simple as that,” Maglaras said.

County delegation chair Rep. Peter Schmidt (D-Dover) said Monday morning he had hoped Brave would take the commission’s offer and goes on paid leave. If he hadn’t, Schmidt said, he was prepared to act.

“We are obviously looking at the necessary preparations for the proceeding if it goes that way,” Schmidt said.

While on leave, Brave will continue to receive his salary. Last year, his base salary was a little more than $72,000. Brave also earned about $10,000 in overtime pay. While on leave, he’s still under the court ordered rules of his release. For example, Brave could be jailed if he does contact his staff and other county staffers named in the bail order.

While Brave is an elected official and answerable to voters, he is also bound by some of the same rules as county employees, Maglaras said. Both Schmidt and Maglaras maintain Brave is not being treated any differently from other county officials in being asked to take paid leave during an open criminal case.

“We didn’t change anything for Sheriff Brave,” Maglaras said.

Brave could be jailed for breaking a court order if he does contact his staff and other county staffers named in the bail order.

Brave allegedly conducted multiple affairs using his county credit card to pay for his trysts.

Since Brave’s arrest last week, Bower has made sure his county credit card is canceled. However, Bower said Monday there is a new suspicious charge to the card that is being investigated.

Brave wrote a $600 check to cover his golf foursome for the county’s Make a Wish fund, which helps pay for final requests for nursing home residents in their last days. 

“That check bounced,” Maglaras said.

Brave’s unraveling began in April when County Administrator Ray Bower discovered unusual charges on Brave’s county-issued credit card. Bower had a meeting with Brave and asked about the charges for a trip to Fort Lauderdale, including first-class airfare and a single hotel room with one king-sized bed.

Brave allegedly lied to Bower, claiming he went to Florida with a male deputy for a conference. Braved joked about the sleeping arrangements, but the single bed stuck in Bower’s mind.

“I had the feeling that something just wasn’t right,” Bower said.

Bower and county finance staff dug deeper and found that instead of a male deputy, the married Brave went to Florida with a female employee, Freezenia Veras. Bower contacted County Attorney Tom Velardi, who then contacted the Attorney General’s Office.

Months before the Fort Lauderdale trip, Brave created a new position in his department, chief of support services, for Veras and was paying her more in salary than his sworn-in and certified deputies. There was reportedly no formal job description for the chief of support services, and Brave had Veras handling his expense receipts, including the paperwork for the trip to Fort Lauderdale.

Brave allegedly lied to grand jurors that he slept in the hotel while Veras stayed with friends. Veras, unbeknownst to Brave, contradicted that story in her grand jury testimony and admitted they shared the room, according to records released in the case.

Brave is scheduled for arraignment on the charges in Rockingham Superior Court next month.

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.

Add gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington to the list of Granite State political candidates with ‘endorsement trouble’ in the 2024 election cycle.

The Democratic Executive Councilor has posted a list of endorsements from elected officials. Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is among them. He is currently the subject of a criminal investigation for allegedly abusing his office. The charge is just the latest scandal to dog the Democrat sheriff.

Cinde Warmington, who hopes to beat outgoing Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, made a splash this month by announcing endorsements from more than 100 Democrats across the state. That included the shout-out she got from Brave.

Warmington did not respond to questions about Brave’s endorsement that appears on her website, and his name was still on the page late Thursday night.

According to a letter from New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Dan Jimenez, Brave is being investigated for theft, falsification in official matters, and abuse of office. Jimenez’s letter did not provide details about the allegations. 

Brave went public with the investigation this week, telling Foster’s Daily Democrat he was being accused of using public money to take a female employee who is not his wife to Florida. Brave also revealed the attorney general is looking at whether or not public money was used for the woman’s housing expenses.

Brave denied all of the accusations, dismissing them as politically motivated. He blamed Strafford County Commission members for targeting him, even though all three — Deanna Rollo, Bob Watson, and George Maglaras — are fellow Democrats.

None of the commissioners have publicly endorsed Warmington.

Endorsements are generating plenty of drama in New Hamshire politics this cycle. When Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign listed the names of several Republican legislators who had previously endorsed former President Donald Trump, it set off a series of tit-for-tat reactions, including one state representative claiming she was endorsing both candidates.

On Tuesday, the Trump campaign released a list of town captains that included conspiracy theory proponent and anti-vaccination activist Terese Grinnell Bastarache. A day earlier, Bastarache was awaiting trial on charges of criminally disrupting an Executive Council meeting as part of an anti-Covid-vaccine protest.

The charges were dropped late Monday.