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Court dismisses woman’s charge on eve of trial

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Jan 13, 2020

NASHUA – As it turned out, former Merrimack resident Julie Tomchak’s scheduled trial last week on one misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest was over before it started.

Prosecutors, according to court documents, ended up dismissing the charge after their attempts to track down their main, and only, witness came up empty.

The witness, a now former Merrimack police officer who arrested Tomchak in April on one count each of assault, disobeying an officer and resisting arrest, is no longer with the department, and despite several attempts to contact him, prosecutors were unable to locate him, the documents state.

A few months after her mid-April arrest, Tomchak, who also goes by Julie Baxter, went to trial in Merrimack district court on the three misdemeanor charges.

While she was acquitted on the assault and disobeying an officer charges, Tomchak was found guilty on the resisting arrest offense.

Sentenced to 7 days in jail, all suspended for one year on the condition of good behavior, Tomchak instead appealed the guilty finding, setting the stage for the jury trial that was scheduled to take place last week in Hillsborough County Superior Court South.

According to documents in her file, Tomchak, who for a time lived in Merrimack, is currently living in a tiny Idaho town called Leadore – population around 100 – situated in far eastern Idaho along the Montana border.

The charges she incurred in April stemmed from an incident in which police say Tomchak allegedly interfered with a police officer by “driving away from him” after the officer told her “she was not free to leave,” according to the reports.

When the officer told her not to leave, the reports state, Tomchak allegedly told him “he would need to shoot her to stop her.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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