Andrew Yourell is new Gilford town prosecutor, ready for a busy year ahead

GILFORD — Prosecutor Andrew Yourell has been in his role almost five months, hired as the town's full-time prosecutor. With his law background, and the work of town police, he sees the partnership leading to winning cases, and winning them the right way.

“The goal is not to just prosecute everyone and throw the book at them,” Yourell said. “It is about getting just outcomes.”

The 31-year-old attorney grew up in Amherst, and attended Bishop Guertin High School before earning his bachelor’s, master’s and law degrees at the University of New Hampshire. After law school, Yourell worked for about two years at the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office before heading to the state Attorney General’s Office, then landing in Gilford.

“I think, growing up, I always thought there was a strong possibility I’d go to the prosecution side of things,” Yourell said. “I know it sounds corny, but my mom always had 'Law & Order' on, and I always loved Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy. It’s not at all like that in real life, but it looked cool, and I felt like if I went to law school, I might finally win an argument with my mom.”

Jokes aside, a year after receiving his MBA, a college friend who interned for the attorney general urged him to talk with now-retired Assistant Attorney General Libby Woodcock. He even drove through a snowstorm to meet her, which ultimately led to an internship of his own. He was assigned a brief on his first day, and worked late into the evening, completely losing track of time because of how much he enjoyed it.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to be a prosecutor, for sure.”

Every prosecutor works with police officers, as they are out making arrests, but Yourell has never been embedded in a department building like he is now. Even while at the county attorney's office, he was in district court for a year, prosecuting seven towns. Officers had his phone number, but he wouldn’t see them, aside from trial days.

Then he moved into Superior Court for felony work, and was one of several prosecutors for the City of Concord, and still didn’t have much close interaction. For the attorney general, he worked in Medicaid fraud, and there were two investigators working in his unit who were retired state troopers.

“They had the offices next door to mine, and we worked pretty collaboratively, but this is the first time I’ve been in a police department,” Yourell said. “In the system, being able to look up cases, talk to them and getting calls the day of an arrest, saying this is what is going on right now. It’s been an interesting change.”

Yourell can directly discuss arrests with officers. He can go right next door to confer with Sgt. Eric Bredbury, who is not only a longtime member of law enforcement, but also previously served as the town’s prosecutor.

“He’s been great in the transition, and definitely didn’t throw me into the deep end without a life vest,” Yourell said.

Yourell said police are the ones making “snap decisions,” and it's his job to dig for answers, and be able to back them up on the charges.

“I get paid to Monday morning quarterback,” Yourell said. “I get paid to go through these things and say, 'These are 10 things a defense attorney will see in a report. How do we shore those up? How do we shore them up for future cases, or this case?' But they are the ones with the hard job, doing it in the moment, in live time.”

Bredbury was in the role for 17 years, and while it is not uncommon for police to serve as prosecutors, more towns are leaning toward hiring an attorney. Having never been a member of law enforcement, Yourell isn’t in their shoes, and police can help him see from their perspectives.

“That has been eye opening for me, and I hope that by the same token having someone like me here is helpful for them,” Yourell said. “Seeing it from a non-police officer perspective to sometimes slow down and say, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Hopefully, we can make each other better at our respective jobs by putting those two different mindsets together.”

Now with a full-time prosecutor, Yourell said the department is looking to take more cases to trial.

Yourell’s focus is on District Court, which includes speeding tickets, domestic violence offenses without injury, and drunk driving.

His first summer with the department is just a few months away, in a unique town. Not only is it a small community of year-round residents, but the population explodes during the summer, and the BankNH Pavilion at Meadowbrook, a 9,000-seat venue, brings in top musical acts, which can come with a variety of offenses.

“DUIs are something that we deal with a lot of,” Yourell said. “The Meadowbrook cases, we deal with a lot of unlawful possession of minors who are intoxicated at shows. So, that’s a little different, because most places don’t have a ton of that going on, and here it is pretty significant.”

Yourell said vacationers come from all walks of life, and the year-round population is widely affluent. That doesn't affect how he does his job.

“DUIs are a good example,” he said. “You get people who are poor, rich, old cars, new cars, the whole nine yards. I try not to let it influence how I resolve cases, but at the same time, you have to look at people’s records, and the impact things will have on them.”

Much of Yourell’s work involves first court appearances. Felony cases are handled by the county attorney’s office, but with misdemeanors and violations, he works to bring a plea offer.

“Sometimes people plead guilty, sometimes they want time to think about it, sometimes they tell me they want to go to trial,” Yourell said.

If a case goes to trial, he will work with his assistant for preparation, gathering evidence like body camera footage, or going through records, and performing any necessary research. Everyone charged is entitled a discovery, and if someone decides to go to trial, all evidence needs to be disclosed.

“I’ve never worked with a department that had body cams before,” Yourell said. “So, it has been different. It has been helpful for me.”

Yourell said one major difference in his work in Gilford compared with past jobs is volume. He pointed to hundreds of files of misdemeanor cases on his shelf, and said last year there were about 800 arrests, which almost always lead to charges.

“That’s a lot different, whereas at the AG Office I had maybe 10 cases at a time that we spent a couple years building,” Yourell said. “That’s been an adjustment.”

Yourell is a competitive person and doesn’t like losing, but also wants to make sure cases are prosecuted properly.

Ideally, he would prosecute 100% of cases and have total confidence in winning. This takes efficiency from officers, as well as his own legal prowess.

“My goal would be that we are doing as thorough investigations as we can,” Yourell said.