ARBITRATION DECISION CAN BE BASIS FOR REMOVAL FROM BRADY LIST

The Laurie List is a version of a Brady List used by some jurisdictions in New Hampshire. Three officers of the Manchester Police Department were off duty and involved in an incident at a bar. An investigation followed and found that the officers had violated several department policies including a prohibition against unnecessary use of force and each officer was suspended. The county attorney then placed the officers names on the Laurie List.

The officers filed a grievance and after a hearing an arbitrator determined that the City of Manchester did not have just cause to take disciplinary action against the officers for actions taken or not taken during the incident. As a result the officers were compensated for lost earnings and information of incident was removed from their personnel files.

The Chief then wrote the county attorney seeking to have the officers removed from the Laurie List. The county attorney would not remove them from the list stating that there was an injured party and that there was a complaint for use of excessive force. The officers petitioned the Attorney General who also declined.

The officers then sued the county seeking a ruling that the county attorney violated the law by refusing to remove their names from the Laurie List and asking for a writ of mandamus to compel the attorney to do so. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in favor of the officers and ordered that their names be removed from the list. The Court stated that because the original allegation of excessive force was determined to be unfounded there was no basis for the continuation of the officers’ names on the list.

Duchesne v. Hillsborough County Attorney, 2015 WL 3897798 (N.H. 2015)