Inmate’s request for sentence reduction rankles law enforcement, prosecutor

LACONIA — A former professional boxer who has been in prison for the past 15 years for pummeling a Belmont police officer is due to go before a judge today in a bid to have the rest of his sentence suspended.

Richard Edson, 51, is currently serving a 22½- to 65-year sentence for second-degree assault, DWI, and driving while certified as an habitual offender — all stemming from an incident on March 13, 2003, when then-Belmont Police Officer Judith Estes was seriously beaten by Edson after she tried to arrest him for DWI.

Estes – now a detective with the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department – opposes Edson’s petition, as do the Belknap County Attorney’s Office which prosecuted the case and Belknap County Sheriff Mike Moyer.

Moyer said it's particularly upsetting that State Prison corrections officers have written letters vouching for Edson’s exemplary behavior in prison, in an apparent effort to persuade the judge.

Moyer protested the corrections officers’ involvement to Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks.

In a letter to Hanks, Moyer wrote, “I fault the number of State of New Hampshire Corrections in support of Mr. Edson’s early release. One of these was written on State of NH DOC stationery. … (Estes),” he continued, “is disappointed and angry that other law enforcement personnel, namely corrections officers, would be allowed to write such character references.”

Edson, a Golden Gloves boxer with more than 20 years in the ring, punched Estes twice in the head, kicked her in the chest and abdomen four to six times, and then pushed her into a snowbank and repeatedly struck her around the head and neck before fleeing in his vehicle, according to court documents.

Lauren Noether, who was Belknap County Attorney when Edson was tried, described Edson as a professional welterweight-class fighter who had heavyweight punching power.

Estes, who weighed 120 pounds, “was not exactly in his class,” Noether said at the time, “and he knew it.”

The 2003 incident marked the second time Edson seriously injured an on-duty police officer. In 1986 he was sentenced to three to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to running over a Laconia police officer with a motorcycle.

“That ruined Officer Tom Drouin’s career,” Moyer said of the mid-1980s incident which occurred when Moyer was a rookie on the Laconia police force. “He almost lost his leg.”

Moyer recalled a run-in he had with Edson later when he went to serve a warrant on Edson in the Downtown Parking Garage: Edson fled, with Moyer and then-Officer Michael Finogle pursuing him on foot. Edson jumped off the bridge near the Landmark Inn. Finogle jumped as well in an effort to apprehend him, injuring himself.

“If you were a cop here 20 years ago, you knew Richard Edson,” Moyer said.

Edson is requesting the sentence suspension under a state law which allows prison inmates who have served two-thirds of their minimum sentence to petition the court to suspend the balance.

Moyer said he does not object to Edson seeking the sentence reduction, but does object to corrections officers taking sides in the matter.

In the petition for the suspension filed by Edson’s attorney, Colin Sandiford argues Edson is a changed man who has “experienced a paradigm shift in his behavior.”

Sandiford said in his petition that Edson spends most of his off-time in prison “with interests in religion or fitness.”

Edson has participated in numerous programs and sessions dealing with anger management and the impact of domestic violence and the family. He cites letters by a minister, and Corrections Department Lt. Ernest Orlando, as indicative of Edson’s laudable behavior while an inmate. Orlando’s letter is dated 2013.

In response to Moyer’s complaint about the corrections officers’ letters, Hanks replied in an email, “I did not sanction these activities and will be addressing this. These are not aligned with our policy nor our practices.”

Moyer likened the corrections officers’ actions to a case last year in which a group of school guidance officials urged leniency at the sentencing of a former Exeter High School guidance counselor who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student.

“They forget about the victim,” Moyer said. “Richard Edson is a career criminal and a violent offender.”

Assistant Belknap County Attorney Keith Cormier, in arguing his objection to the sentence reduction, said, “The state believes that given the defendant’s behavior toward law enforcement (that) calls for the most punitive sanction allowed for.”

Today’s hearing will be held before Judge Larry Smukler, who presided at Edson’s 2004 trial. At a hearing in Belknap Superior Court three weeks ago, Edson’s lawyer asked to have the matter transferred, after Presiding Judge James D. O’Neill III told attorneys that he had gone to high school with Drouin, the former Laconia police officer.

Moyer said that if Edson does succeed in having his sentenced reduced, “I hope he obeys the law of society.”