Chandler appeal sent back to trial court for hearing

LACONIA — The case of a former Belmont man now serving time for repeatedly sexually assaulting his juvenile stepdaughter over a period of five years is headed back to the court where he was tried.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday issued an order sending the case of Keith Chandler back to Belknap Superior Court for hearings on motions that will be filed by attorneys handling his appeal.

Chandler, 46, was convicted in April on five counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, two counts of attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault, and two counts of felonious sexual assault. He is now serving a 20- to 40-year prison sentence, and could be released in as little at 17½ years if he successfully completes a sexual offender program.

In June, attorneys initiated the process of appealing Chandler’s conviction to the state Supreme Court.

The appeals attorneys will be asking that Chandler be granted a new trial on the grounds of “ineffective assistance of counsel,” according to Belknap County Attorney Andrew Livernois.

This move temporarily halts Chandler main appeal before the state Supreme Court. The filing of the brief laying out the reasons for the appeal, which was due to be submitted to the high court next Friday, will now be filed only after Judge James D. O’Neill III rules on the motion that will be filed in Belknap Superior Court.

In a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court held the appropriate standard for proving ineffective assistance of counsel requires both that the defense attorney was objectively deficient and that there was a reasonable probability that a competent attorney would have led to a different outcome.

Attorney Thomas Barnard, of the Appellate Defender Program of the New Hampshire Public Defender’s office, is handling Chandler’s appeal. Calls to Barnard seeking comment were not returned.

Livernois said he expects the motion will be denied. “His attorneys were very effective,” said Livernois, who prosecuted the case during a 3½-day trial in which Chandler’s stepdaughter, Jessica Washburn, was the main witness.

“Assuming he loses that (motion) he would revive his appeal” before the Supreme Court, Livernois said.

Since the case has been sent back to Belknap Superior Court, Livernois will be the one who will argue against the motion. The motion had not been filed as of Friday, and Livernois said he did not know when it would be filed.

The Laconia Daily Sun does not normally disclose the names of sex assault victims, but this past summer, Washburn contacted the paper, saying she wanted to tell her story, which became the basis of a three-part series the paper published in September about sexual assault victims.

Washburn’s mother and Chandler’s wife, Heather Chandler, has said she continues to believe her husband never sexually assaulted Washburn.