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The criminal case against former Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is moving into the next phase as a grand jury returned eight felony indictments on Friday.

Brave is accused of stealing $19,000 in county money, tampering with evidence, and multiple counts of perjury. Brave was charged in August. The indictments effectively mean a grand jury confirmed the charges had merit. That clears the way for trial.

Brave resigned as sheriff last week after prosecutors caught him lying about living outside New Hampshire. Brave violated his bail when he moved to an apartment in Tewksbury, Mass., in October.

The move also meant Brave was legally ineligible to serve as an elected county sheriff. Brave went on paid administrative leave in August and had been collecting his pay until last week. He reportedly took home more than $10,000 since moving out of state.

Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham and Assistant Attorney General David Lovejoy accused Brave of stealing taxpayer money by collecting his salary while living in Massachusetts. The prosecutors pushed to get Brave’s personal recognizance bail revoked until he quit the job.

Lief Becker, Brave’s attorney, said the resignation corrected the residency problem, and prosecutors dropped the move to send Brave to jail pre-trial.

Fincham and Lovejoy still want Brave to face consequences for reportedly lying to the court about where he lives and about his finances. Though he managed to stay out of jail by quitting his job, the prosecutors want Brave to face a contempt hearing for his other lies discovered in recent weeks.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire revoked Brave’s free public defender last month as prosecutors showed he lied about being unable to afford private counsel, telling the court in October he couldn’t afford it. However, at the start of October, he reportedly paid more than $50,000 upfront for a year’s rent on the Tewksbury apartment. Later that month, Brave bought himself a 1968 Porsche 356.

When investigators went to the Dover apartment where Brave told the court he resided, they spoke to his now ex-wife, Jamie Brave. That was when they learned Mark Brave no longer lived in New Hampshire, and that he came into a substantial amount of money from selling the couple’s Dover home.

According to Jamie Brave, both she and her husband walked away from the sale of their home with $240,000 apiece. Brave also got the couple’s Mercedes SUV in their divorce agreement. And while Brave claimed he was paying tuition for two of his three children, Jamie Brave told the investigators he was paying for one child’s tuition.

On the public defender application, Mark Brave claimed he got $190,000 from the house sale and ended up with $3,500 after he used his money to pay off marital debts.

Whatever sanctions are on the table for the contempt hearing, they pale to the theft case, where he faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

The indictments handed up by the grand jury include a Class A felony theft charge, two Class B felony charges of falsifying physical evidence, and five Class B felony charges of perjury. Class A felonies carry potential seven-and-a-half to 15-year prison sentences, and Class B felonies come with three-and-a-half to seven-year terms.

Democratic Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave found his “Get Out of Jail Free” card. He quit his job.

Until Tuesday, the accused fraudster was on paid leave while his case moved forward. Then, he was caught hiding that he was living in Massachusetts in violation of a court order and, therefore, illegally collecting more than $10,000 in pay as an elected official. Facing the loss of his bail deal, Brave bailed on the sheriff’s job rather than going directly to jail.

Prosecutors went to Rockingham Superior Court in Brentwood on Tuesday to ask Judge Daniel St. Hilaire to revoke Brave’s personal recognizance bail. The surprise resignation, announced in court, paved the way for a new bail agreement. Brave’s new attorney, Leif Becker, said the resignation settled the legal problems the Massachusetts move had caused.

“The resignation corrects the bail issue,” Becker said.

Becker argued in his motion to keep the personal recognizance bail in place that Brave is not a flight risk. Many defendants in cases at Rockingham Superior Court live or work in Massachusetts, and Brave should be allowed to move freely between the two states, according to Becker’s motion.

The Tewksbury, Mass. apartment where he is living is a 45-minute drive from the courthouse, compared to the 35-minute drive from his former home in Dover, Becker wrote.

Brave originally claimed he needed to be able to go to Massachusetts in order to drive his daughter to private school every day.

It has been a rough year for Brave. Once hailed as a rising star in the New Hampshire Democratic Party, he is the state’s first elected Black sheriff. 

Now, he faces several felonies alleging he stole $19,000 in taxpayer money to fund his extramarital affairs with out-of-state paramours. He has since gone through a divorce and has been forced to sell his house. Tuesday Brave faced the final indignity, giving up his job.

(He does get to keep the 1968 Porsche he bought.)

Even though Brave managed to stay out of jail this week, he is not out of the legal woods just yet. Prosecutors filed for an indictment extension this month, seeking more time to bring charges to a grand jury.

Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham declined to say Tuesday if that extension meant Brave could be indicted on additional criminal counts. Fincham plans to push for a contempt hearing against Brave based on the latest alleged financial and residency lies told by Brave. It was unclear what the result of a contempt finding could mean for Brave, as it is up to St. Hilaire to decide.

There is still some possible good news for Brave. Prosecutors plan to offer him a plea bargain in the coming weeks. Plea agreement offers are standard in criminal cases and do not necessarily mean the defendant will accept the agreement.

Brave is due back in court on Jan. 30 for a dispositional hearing; at this point, more may be known about the plea offer.  

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.

House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) said Republican Rep. Troy Merner lied to him when confronted about his residency last year.

Feeling heat from Democrats after state Attorney General John Formella announced voter fraud and theft charges on Tuesday against Merner, Packard issued a statement Wednesday laying out his version of the controversy.

Packard acknowledged the Department of Justice told his office last December that Merner was accused of living outside his Lancaster, N.H. district. But Packard said he did not have verified information and could not take action. According to Packard’s statement, the Speaker’s Office conducted an investigation that stalled when Merner continued to lie about his residence.

“Upon being informed of the DOJ communication, the Speaker’s Office initiated a review of the matter, which included calling and interviewing Merner to confront him about the allegations in the Department of Justice communication,” Packard said.

“At that time, Merner continued to attest that his domicile was in Lancaster at the apartment he rented on Elm Street. The review did not obtain any new information other than what was contained in the information the Department of Justice provided; therefore, the matter was considered inconclusive pending further investigation/findings by the Department of Justice or other findings that may come through other processes or sources.”

Democrats said House Republican leaders, clinging to a 201-198 majority, didn’t want to know the truth about Merner.

“Given the closely divided partisan makeup of the House this term, it is of grave concern that Rep. Merner’s residency violations were overlooked both in Lancaster and in Concord while he continued to hold elected office,” House Democratic Leader Rep. Matt Wilhelm (D-Manchester) said in a statement.

Merner was elected to represent Lancaster, Dalton, North Umberland, and Stratford in November, months after he moved out of the district and sold his Lancaster home. The Attorney General’s Office received a complaint about Merner from a Lancaster resident a week after the November election and sent an investigator to speak to the representative.

Investigator Anna Brewer-Croteau found Merner living in a home in the town of Carroll, well outside his district. Wearing boxers and a t-shirt and eating cereal, Merner acknowledged to the investigator that he lived outside the district.

In the affidavit released Tuesday by Formella’s office, Merner maintained an office in town and slept there “multiple nights a week.” He followed that up by claiming other people do the same thing.

“(Merner) told (Brewer-Croteau) that he knows of other people who vote in Lancaster and are not domiciled there. (Merner) denied to identify these people,” the affidavit states.

As well as being Lancaster’s state representative, Merner also served on the town’s Board of Selectmen. He told Brewer-Croteau he had no plans to run for reelection.

Brewer-Croteau’s report was conveyed to General Court Chief Operating Officer Terry Pfaff on Dec. 6, 2o22.

Packard insisted he and his fellow GOP leaders in the House didn’t have enough to go on at the time.

“The information was not conclusive in nature and made no final determination about Merner’s domicile. The information also contained Merner’s account that the allegations were unfounded and that the investigation was ongoing,” Packard said.

Packard claimed he never got an official complaint about Merner’s living situation, nor did he get any confirmation from Formella about Merner’s residency until September. Throughout Merner’s time in the House, he submitted mileage reimbursement forms for his Lancaster address and maintained official ties to Lancaster. 

“He continued to serve on the Lancaster Board of Selectmen, which further legitimized his attestations,” Packard said.

After Merner was caught voting in the March 2023 Lancaster election, Formella’s office started asking about Merner’s office. During that investigation, it was learned that Merner did not, in fact, sleep at his Lancaster office multiple times a week. According to the affidavit, neighbors told investigators he did not sleep there at all. 

Packard never got a formal notice about the March voting complaint, nor did he get one about Merner’s admission in May that he did not live in Lancaster. However, once Formella’s investigation wrapped up, Packard said he took immediate steps to deal with Merner.

“When the Speaker’s Office was made aware of the conclusions made by the Department of Justice in September 2023, rapid action was taken to force Merner to vacate his seat,” Packard said.

Merner resigned from the Lancaster Select Board in October. He is charged with wrongful voting, a class B felony carrying a sentence of up to 7 years in prison and a fine of up to $4,000, and multiple other charges.

Merner is due to be arraigned on Dec. 28.

Maybe Republican former state Rep. Troy Merner should not have answered the door in his underwear when an investigator from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office knocked at the Carroll home where he lives.

Maybe he should have resigned from his elected positions when he moved to the home outside his district. Or maybe someone in the State House should have acted when they were alerted about Merner’s residency in December 2022.

That was when top lawyers with the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Myles Matteson and Anne Edwards, called Terry Pfaff, the Chief Operating Officer of the General Court, to inform him of Merner’s living situation, according to records made available Tuesday. House Speaker Sherman Packer (R-Londonderry) acknowledged Tuesday he was informed last December as well.

Merner was allowed to continue to represent the district he no longer lived in for months.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it is charging Merner, 63, for wrongful voting, theft by deception, and unsworn falsification. The charges are the next act in a legal drama that started a year ago.

Formella’s office did not make Merner’s residency problem public until this March after it received a complaint that Merner had voted in Lancaster’s municipal election. Merner continued to serve in the House until September, when Formella’s office sent a memo to Packard confirming Merner did not live in Lancaster.

However, according to the records, investigators and attorneys inside Formella’s office knew Merner did not live in Lancaster as early as December of last year.

Packard said in a statement released Tuesday night he was aware of the December call to Pfeff, but Merner disputed that he did not meet the residency requirement. 

“Allegations against Merner were made in December 2022, and the General Court was made aware that Merner disputed and contested those allegations then. Merner continued to attest to the General Court through signed official paperwork that his residence was in Lancaster,” Packard said. “The details of Merner’s admissions relative to his residing outside of his district were not brought to the attention of the Speaker’s Office until September when the Department of Justice investigation had concluded.”

Merner was a Lancaster selectman and a state representative for Lancaster, Dalton, North Cumberland, and Stratford. The only problem is that he lives in Carroll, having moved there in the summer of 2022 with his new wife, Janet Nelson. After moving, Merner was elected to the House to represent Coos District 1 in November 2022.

Merner did not respond to a call Tuesday. He claimed, according to statements made to investigators, that his out-of-district residency was well known, and he was encouraged by others to continue serving, though he did not name his supporters.

The affidavit filed in the case depicted a man who seemed not to realize he was doing anything wrong.

“State Rep. Merner told (Investigator Anna) Brewer-Croteau that he could not believe that someone actually complained to (the attorney general), further stating that he (State Rep. Merner) has done so much for the town of Lancaster,” the affidavit written by Investigator Thomas Defosses stated.

A Lancaster resident contacted the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office a week after the 2022 election to report Merner was no longer living in town, and that the fact was well-known in Lancaster.

Merner sold his Lancaster home in the summer of 2022 and moved to Carroll after marrying Nelson. He claimed he had an arrangement with the buyer of his former home that he could temporarily stay in a room there, but he often stays overnight in an office he’s rented in Lancaster.

In his Dec. 5 meeting with Brewer-Croteau, during which he was in his boxers and a T-shirt and eating cereal, Merner said he planned to finish his terms as a selectman and state representative but not stand for reelection in 2024 since he no longer lived in Lancaster.

Lancaster Town Manager Benjamin Gaetjens-Oleson was aware of the issue when Brewer-Croteau interviewed him, saying he had fielded many complaints about Merner’s residency. But, Gaetjens-Oleson felt he could not do anything since Merner was technically his boss.

Gaetjens-Oleson reportedly warned Merner about his residency problem, saying it was “going to cause an upheaval with the locals.”

Merner would later tell Investigator Richard Tracy he had to keep on as a selectman since he was the only member of the board who did any work.

Tracy was assigned to the case after Fenella’s office got a complaint about Merner voting in the March elections in Lancaster. Merner told Tracy he thought voting was OK even though he did not live there.

“(He) said he had not heard back from the Attorney General’s Office since he spoke with (Investigator) Brewer-Croteau, and he did not think he was doing anything wrong,” the affidavit states. 

At that point, Tracy had established Merner was not regularly sleeping in the office he rented in Lancaster, as the neighbors attested they did not see him. When confronted with that, Merner claimed he thought it would be OK if he had an address in Lancaster and worked at the town offices regularly.

Now that his residency was out in the open, the investigation was on. Investigators found Merner had been submitting mileage expenses to the General Court for round trips to Concord from Lancaster and not Carroll. Lawmakers can get reimbursed for their trips to Concord to serve their constituents.

A round trip from Lancaster to Concord is about 202 miles, while the Carroll to Concord trip is about 176 miles, meaning Merner was overcharging taxpayers to get to work. According to the affidavit, Merner overcharged taxpayers a total of $973 throughout his entire term.

Merner was ousted from the House in September and resigned as a Lancaster selectman in October. He is now facing prison time, as the wrongful voting charge is a class B misdemeanor which carries a possible three-and-a-half to seven-year prison sentence. He is due to be arraigned on Dec. 28.

A middle-aged man buying a sports car while going through a divorce might not be a crime, but Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave could end up in jail after treating himself to a 1968 Porsche, according to court records.

The first-term Democrat is already facing eight felonies for stealing taxpayer money to fund his love life. Now prosecutors say Brave lied to court officials about being too poor to pay for a lawyer ten days after he bought the classic car.

The new allegations against Brave, laid out in motions filed in the Rockingham Superior Court on Friday, are that the Sheriff lied under oath about where he lived, lied in his written application for a free public defender, lied to the judge when questioned about his finances, and lied again to Strafford County taxpayers when he collected $10,000 in salary despite no longer living in New Hampshire. 

Prosecutors want to revoke Brave’s bail, saying he committed at least one count each of felony theft and perjury since being arraigned in the original case on Sept. 28. They are seeking a bail hearing as soon as possible.

Brave’s already had his free public defender canceled when the state raised questions about the truthfulness of his financial disclosures this week. It was those disclosures and his prior sworn testimony about his living situation that could send him behind bars.

According to the motions filed by Assistant Attorneys General Joe Fincham and David Lovejoy, days after he was released on bail, Brave paid more than $50,000 to a Tewksbury, Mass. couple for a year’s rent on an apartment in the Bay State. The couple would tell investigators Brave does, in fact, live in Massachusetts. That’s the location where Brave had his Porsche delivered on Oct. 17, according to photos he posted on his Instagram account, Fincham and Lovejoy write.

“LOOK WHAT FINALLY ARRIVED THIS MORNING FINALLY!” Brave posted with photos of the 1968 Porsche 356 soft-top convertible. 

Brave has since taken his account private, and the photos were not included in the filing. Porsche 356s from the 1960s can range in price from about $100,000 to much more depending on the model year and features.

For Brave, living outside New Hampshire isn’t just a violation of his bail order. It’s also against state law for elected officials to live outside the state while serving, and getting paid to serve. Brave, who is on paid administrative leave, has collected more than $10,000 in salary since he signed the Massachusetts lease.

Brave is also accused of being less than forthcoming about his living situation. During a status of counsel hearing on Oct. 26, he told Judge Dan. St. Hilaire said he could not afford the $75,000 to $100,000 retainer for legal representation from Shaheen & Gordon. When questioned about his living situation, Brave swore under oath that he lived in an apartment in Dover. 

What Brave didn’t know during the Oct. 26 status hearing where he allegedly perjured himself is that investigators had already been to the Dover apartment and spoken to his soon-to-be ex-wife, Jamie Brave. 

Jamie Brave told the investigators Mark Brave lived in Massachusetts and she lived in the Dover apartment. She would later tell investigators Mark Brave had much more money than he claimed in court.

According to Jamie Brave, both she and her husband walked away from the sale of their home with $240,000 apiece. Brave also got the couple’s Mercedes SUV. And while Brave has claimed he’s paying tuition for two of his three children, Jamie Brave told the investigators he’s paying for one child’s tuition. 

On the application for a public defender, Mark Brave claimed he got $190,000 from the house sale and ended up with $3,500 as he used his money to pay off debt. 

Jamie Brave told the investigators that her husband had his mail forwarded to the Dover apartment, and at one point asked her to put his name on the lease. She declined.

Brave seems to have a poor relationship with the truth. He’s already charged with perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury about who he was traveling to Florida with on the County dime. It was a woman not his wife.

This week, the County released an internal report about Jamie Brave’s December 2022 driving under the influence arrest. According to the report, Mark Brave lied to county officials and his deputies about the arrest. Mark Brave went with a story that he was home with his children when his wife was arrested. 

“She should have called an Uber,” Brave reportedly said.

In truth, he was also in the car at the time and he was too drunk to drive, according to police reports. The Sheriff was taken into protective custody after blowing a 0.15 percent blood alcohol content, almost twice the legal limit. He was released into the custody of a friend, who is also a part-time deputy, according to the report. 

He’s reportedly lied about his college degrees and law enforcement experience, as well. 

Caught not reporting $1.5 million in revenue, Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is now under court order to pay for his own defense lawyer.

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire canceled Brave’s free public defender Tuesday after prosecutors requested an emergency hearing. According to court records, prosecutors say Brave lied on his financial disclosure forms when he first applied for a public defender, leaving proceeds from the sale of his Dover home off his list of assets.

Brave cried poverty when he was approved for a public defender on Oct. 26, though he had already sold the 17 Schooner Drive home on Sept. 29. Brave did not list revenue from the home sale on his application for a public defender. The home sold for $1.5 million.

Brave was arraigned on charges he stole taxpayer money to support his hook-up lifestyle on Sept. 28. At that hearing, Brave represented himself, saying he could not afford a lawyer. Brave said he planned to hire Shaheen and Gordon to represent him once the house sale went through. 

Brave is facing the possibility of 63 years in prison and blames his current legal predicament on political vendettas and racism. He claimed Strafford County Commissioners George Maglaras, Robert Watson, and Deanna Rollo made up the allegations as part of a political maneuver. Maglaras, Watson, and Rollo are all elected Democrats. Brave’s also accused Maglaras of racism. According to Brave, Maglaras called him a “token.”

County Administrator Ray Bowers went to County Attorney Tom Velardi last spring after finding suspicious purchases Brave made with his county-issued credit card, according to records made public in the investigation. Verladi referred the matter to New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella’s office for investigation.

According to the affidavit written by New Hampshire Attorney General Investigator Allison Vachon, Brave repeatedly used his position and public money to fund his relationships with various paramours. There were plane trips, hotel stays, meals, and even a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge, though it is not clear if the Great Wolf Lodge weekend was with his family or the family of a woman he was dating. 

County officials had been concerned about Brave’s spending outpacing his budget for months when an audit found Brave had “maxed out” his county credit card. According to Vachon’s affidavit, the audit also turned up suspicious receipts for an August 2022 trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

While Brave would give Bowers and, later, investigators multiple rationales for the Florida trip, it turned out to be an excursion with female Strafford County Sheriff employee Freezenia Veras.

Brave had hired a woman, Veras, to a new position he created for her in March 2022. Veras’ title as chief of support services/public information officer didn’t come with a job description, but it did come with a $ 79,000-a-year salary. As a result, Veras was getting more in her paycheck than certified deputies in Strafford County- those qualified to engage in law enforcement. Brave would go on to have Veras sworn in as a special deputy, giving her the power to arrest people.

Veras would eventually tell Vachon she and Brave went to Florida to research her new job with other law enforcement agencies. Veras told investigators Brave claimed the meetings were canceled at the last minute, and she spent her time shopping and hanging out by the hotel pool, the affidavit stated.

Brave allegedly used taxpayer funds for trips with multiple women and then repeatedly lied about it, the affidavit stated. He is charged with eight felonies, including theft, perjury, and falsifying evidence for stealing at least $19,000 from the county.

Brave remains Strafford County Sheriff, at least until the next election. He is currently on paid leave from his job.

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is charged with crimes related to his hookups with women, allegedly paid for with public money. But on Thursday, Brave was alone, representing himself during his arraignment hearing in a Strafford County courtroom.

Brave, who is accused of stealing taxpayer money to fund his secret love life and then lying about it to a grand jury, still does not have a lawyer. That may not matter much yet, as the hearing in Rockingham Superior Court was more of a formality to get the case started.

The Strafford County Democrat entered pleas of not guilty to the eight felony charges brought against him, and he remains free on bail with the same restrictions imposed when he was arrested last month. Brave, who is on paid leave from his sheriff’s job, is prohibited from contacting numerous Strafford County employees, including several members of the sheriff’s office staff.

The only minor change in his bail was Brave has moved out of his Schooner Drive home in Dover, and he will be allowed to leave the state when he drives his daughter to a private school in Lawrence, Mass.

“I’m a single dad,” Brave said in court.

Selling the Schooner Drive home is key to Brave’s legal defense. He said this week he plans to use the sale proceeds to hire an attorney. The home was listed on real estate websites for $1.1 million, with indications that a sale is pending.

It has been a steep fall from grace for Brave, once a rising star in the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Brave, the first African American elected sheriff in state history, had backing from the party’s mainstream and progressives in the Black Lives Matter movement.

His endorsement in the Democratic primary race for governor was a big enough get that Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington (D-District 2) put his backing on her website. The campaign later removed his name without comment.

The criminal probe into Brave came to light because he started talking to the press. In June, he disclosed the existence of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit investigation and used the opportunity to preemptively deny the allegations. He also accused Strafford County Commissioners George Maglaras, Robert Watson, and Deanna Rollo of creating the accusation as a game of dirty politics. Maglaras, Watson, and Rollo are all elected Democrats. 

As the investigation was heating up behind the scenes, Brave went to the press again and accused Maglaras of racism. According to Brave, Maglaras called him a “token.”

In fact, County Administrator Ray Bowers went to County Attorney Tom Velardi this spring when he found suspicious purchases Brave made with his county-issued credit card, according to records made public in the investigation. Verladi did not investigate Brave due to the potential conflict of interest but instead contacted the attorney general.

According to the affidavit written by New Hampshire Attorney General Investigator Allison Vachon, Brave repeatedly used his position and public money to fund his romantic trysts. There were plane trips, hotel stays, meals, and even a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge, though it is not clear if the Great Wolf Lodge weekend was with his family or the family of a woman he was dating. 

County officials had been concerned about Brave’s spending outpacing his budget for months when an audit found Brave had “maxed out” his county credit card. According to Vachon’s affidavit, the audit also turned up suspicious receipts for an August 2022 trip to Fort Lauderdale.

While Brave would give Bowers and, later, investigators multiple rationales for the Florida trip, it turned out to be an excursion with female Strafford County Sheriff’s Office employee Freezenia Veras.

Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave created a new position in his department for employee Freezenia Veras.

Brave hired Veras for a new position he created just for her in March 2022. Veras’ new title as chief of support services/public information officer didn’t come with a job description, but it did come with a $79,000-a-year salary. Those wages made Veras higher paid than the certified deputies in the office, the ones qualified to engage in law enforcement. Brave would eventually have Veras sworn in as a special deputy, giving her the power to arrest people.

Veras would eventually tell Vachon she and Brave went to Florida to research her new job with other law enforcement agencies. Veras told investigators Brave claimed the meetings were canceled at the last minute, and she spent her time shopping and hanging out by the hotel pool, the affidavit stated.

Brave allegedly used taxpayer funds for trips with multiple women, and then repeatedly lied about it, the affidavit stated. He is charged with eight felonies, including theft, perjury, and falsifying evidence for stealing at least $19,000 from the county. Brave could be sentenced to up to 64 years in prison if convicted on all counts. 

Brave remains Strafford County Sheriff, at least until the next election. He is currently on paid leave from his job. Veras no longer works for the sheriff’s office.

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. 

Mark Brave, the Democratic Strafford County Sheriff charged with allegedly stealing taxpayer money to fund his love life, is also the subject of a Dover Police investigation, NHJournal has learned.

Authorities are not saying what prompted the Dover investigation into Brave, but clues in the public affidavit supporting theft and perjury charges indicate it could be linked to one of the women he was dating.

Investigators with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit knew Brave lied about a February trip he took to Maryland but didn’t know why he went there until Aug. 7, just 10 days before charges were announced.

That was when a Maryland woman, Kenisha Epps-Schmidt, first contacted Dover Police. During her conversation with Dover officers, Epps-Schmidt disclosed she was having an affair with the married Brave, and he had flown down in February to see her. Brave allegedly used his county-issued credit card to pay for the tryst.

It is not clear why Epp-Schmidt contacted Dover Police in the first place. Chief William Breault refuses to release his department’s report, which NHJournal requested through a Right to Know request. According to Breault, his department’s report is in the hands of the attorney general.

“(The report) is not releasable at this time as it has been sent to the N.H. Attorney General’s Office and is part of an ongoing and open investigation,” Breault wrote.

Michael Garrity, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella’s spokesman, confirmed the report’s existence, but would not discuss its contents because of the ongoing investigation.

“Yes, we received a report from Dover Police Department, which is part of our ongoing investigation into Sheriff Mark Brave,” Garrity said.

That raises the possibility Brave could face more charges for whatever allegations are made in the Dover report. 

Epp-Schmidt initially agreed to speak with NHJournal about her relationship with Brave when contacted on the phone, but immediately hung up after the first question: “Why did you contact Dover Police?”

Investigators already knew Brave’s story about the February Maryland trip was dubious. Brave told investigators this summer that he went to Maryland to meet with Congressman Chris Pappas, but Pappas canceled at the last minute. In a thoughtful gesture, Pappas gave Brave an American flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol by way of apology for the missed meeting.

It just took one phone call to Pappas’ office for investigators to establish Brave was never on Pappas’ schedule for the dates he claimed. 

“No relevant staff had any personal recollection of such a meeting with Brave ever being scheduled with the D.C. office, nor could they locate any records reflecting the scheduling of a meeting,” the affidavit states.

Brave did get a flag from Pappas — just not in February of this year. According to records from Pappas’ office, the only flag Pappas ever gave Brave was in June 2022, when the congressman visited Brave in the Strafford County Sheriff’s Office.

Formella announced eight felony charges against Brave on Aug. 17 after months of investigating New Hampshire’s first elected African American Sheriff. Brave allegedly stole more than $19,000 in taxpayer funds for airfare, hotel stays, and meals. Many purchases were connected to trips with at least three women.

Brave is charged with one count of theft by deception, two counts of falsifying physical evidence, and five counts of perjury. If convicted on all counts, Brave would face a 31-to-64-year prison sentence.

Dover Police didn’t initially contact Formella’s office about Brave, but rather by Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi, according to the affidavit. Velardi took the case to the attorney general soon after County Administrator Ray Bower reached out about Brave’s suspicious spending.

Brave is currently free on personal recognizance bail and due to be arraigned in court later this month. His case was transferred to the Rockingham Superior Court to avoid any potential conflict of interest. Court records indicate Brave currently does not have an attorney representing him.

Brave is on paid leave from his position pending the criminal case’s outcome.