By Annmarie Timmins
Concord Monitor
When he gave an appeals board his side of his firing last month, former state trooper James Conrad was patient and cooperative while testifying. He was less so under cross-examination by the state yesterday.
When asked by state attorney Marta Modigliani about a 1998 reprimand for allegedly calling a supervisor a “d---head,” Conrad disputed the account. When pressed, Conrad corrected Modigliani, saying he had only asked his supervisor why he was behaving like a “d---head.”
And when asked whether he agreed that taking his then-wife’s phone, credit cards and purse in 2007 during a marital dispute was controlling behavior, Conrad said no.
“I had my reasons,” he said, smiling. “And I’d be happy to tell you them.”
Conrad, 50, of Meredith, was fired last year following a physical altercation with supervisors in state police headquarters in September 2007. He now hopes a state Personnel Appeals Board will reinstate him for at least nine months so he can retire with full benefits and on more positive terms.
The appeals board, Chairman Patrick Wood and members Philip Bonafide and Robert Johnson, took up Conrad’s appeal in 2008 and have heard four days of testimony since then. The last witnesses, including Conrad and his doctor at the New Hampshire Hospital, testified yesterday.
The board now has about a month and a half to issue its decision. Conrad’s quest is more about honor than benefits; he is already collecting 49 percent of his retirement pay. If he is able to reach full retirement, he’d collect 50 percent.
Conrad and his attorney, John Krupski, maintain Conrad was wrongly fired. They say he punched a door at headquarters and got into a scuffle with supervisors in 2007 only because they had provoked him.
At the time, Conrad was under internal investigation for behavior surrounding his divorce and had been called into headquarters for questioning. He requested legal representation, but no one was immediately available. He asked for a couple of days to arrange representation and says he became agitated, despondent and violent only when he was told he had to answer questions there and was not free to leave - even as he tried to resign.
The state disagrees.
Col. Frederick Booth testified during a hearing last month that he decided to fire Conrad because Conrad had displayed a pattern of troubling, inappropriate and concerning behavior after being given a chance to correct his ways.
Booth said Conrad called police resources in September 2007 to search for his then-wife, Laura Conrad, after she’d refused to come home following a domestic dispute. He reported her missing to the Laconia police on another occasion even though she had told him she was staying at a Concord shelter because she was afraid, according to court records.
The state police were called to Conrad’s home after his wife said he was in the bathroom with his gun, Booth testified. Another time, Laura Conrad called her husband’s supervisors to say he’d violated a divorce decree forbidding them from harassing one another.
Under cross-examination yesterday, Modigliani questioned Conrad about that behavior. He denied much of it.
When he called in the Meredith and state police to help search for his wife, he genuinely thought she was missing and emotionally unstable, he said. Laura Conrad had, instead, left town with another man, according to testimony.
Meredith police reports from that night say Conrad was speeding through town and swearing at them, telling them they weren’t doing “s---" to find his wife. When they questioned him about speeding through town, he said, “I’m a f---ing state trooper,” according to the report.
Conrad said yesterday he never cursed or used his job as influence. He challenged Modigliani when she said he’d been driving erratically and fast.
“I was exceeding the speed limit,” he said.
After Laura Conrad filed for divorce, Conrad filed a domestic violence claim against her, accusing her of assaulting him. It was dismissed by a judge, who said there was no evidence Conrad had been sincerely afraid of his wife.
When Modigliani raised the issue yesterday, Conrad insisted he had been assaulted.
“I can show you the scars on my wrist right now if you want to see them,” Conrad responded, smiling again.
In addition to Conrad, three others testified yesterday. Trooper William Graham, president of the troopers’ union, and retired trooper Chris LaPorte, a past union representative, said Conrad was not himself when they saw him after the incident in headquarters.
They said he was suicidal, confused and emotional, and he appeared to be unraveling. They both said Conrad, in their opinions, needed to be involuntarily committed to the state hospital for evaluation and treatment.
He was committed a few days later but not that day by supervisors.
Conrad’s treating doctor at the state hospital, Dr. Alexander de Nesnera, described Conrad similarly during his first days at the hospital. He said Conrad was a “broken man” who was overwhelmed and had no will to live.
Conrad was afraid of losing his job, his marriage and his honor, everything he’d worked for, de Nesnera said. He diagnosed Conrad with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Conrad was released about 30 days later, stabilized, de Nesnera said.
Copyright 2009 ProQuest Information and Learning