By James A. Kimble
Union Leader Corp.
BRENTWOOD, NH — A former state trooper accused of accepting a Mustang from a salvage-auto dealer for providing bogus inspection stickers has hired a new lawyer in hopes of winning a second bid to be released from jail.
Fred Stamatatos, 40, of Pelham is asking a Rockingham County Superior Court judge to knock his bail down so he can be freed as he awaits trial.
Stamatatos was arrested on May 26 on charges of felony bribery and nine misdemeanors, including unsworn falsification and official oppression.
Defense lawyer Mark Sisti is arguing that his client’s bail is exceptionally high because Stamatatos has been unfairly coupled with another state employee arrested as part of the same investigation.
Donna Rockholt, a department of motor vehicles employee, is facing charges that she provided fake driver’s licenses to illegal aliens in a scheme that netted her thousands of dollars, according to prosecutors.
Investigators learned about Stamatatos’ alleged bribery while listening to Rockholt’s tapped phone conversations with a common middleman, Aldaberto Medina, 47, of Manchester.
Medina is facing three counts of bribery for allegedly paying off the two state employees. Rockholt, 47, of Manchester, is charged with three counts of bribery and six misdemeanors including unsworn falsification and official oppression.
“The only link between Mr. Stamatatos’s case and the alleged license scam appears to be the individual to whom the illegal licenses were sold,” Sisti wrote. “However, Mr. Stamatatos’s case has been subjected to the same media glare as the license case.”
State prosecutors have already objected once to having the ex-trooper’s bail reduced, saying they believe Stamatatos is a flight risk or could harm himself if freed from jail.
Exeter District Court Judge Laurence Cullen agreed with prosecutors at a June 4 hearing and declined to reduce the bail from $100,000 cash.
Sisti, who was hired after Stamatatos lost his first bail hearing, has appealed that decision to superior court.
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the request. But at the June 4 hearing, they won a request to hold a source-of-funds hearing to determine where bail money was coming from if it was ever posted for Stamatatos’s release.
Sisti wants Stamatatos’ bail reduced from $100,000 cash down to around $10,000 or $15,000, according to court documents.
Copyright 2010 Union Leader Corp.