(Telegraph file photo) Former state police Trooper Haden Wilber

CONCORD — The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire has filed suit against the New Hampshire state police, claiming that the law enforcement agency has wrongly attempted to keep secret records alleging misconduct against a former state trooper.

The former trooper, Haden Wilber, had been placed on the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule — also known as the “Laurie List” — because of “credibility issues” stemming from Wilber’s alleged conduct during a February 2017 traffic stop.

State police discharged Wilber in August 2021, according to the ACLU-NH.

The 2017 traffic stop in question prompted the driver, a woman named Robyn White from Avon, Maine, to file a federal suit against Wilber and other defendants, which accused Wilber of fabricating evidence and was settled for $212,500 in 2019.

According to ACLU-NH, Wilber stopped White as she drove north on I-95 because her car’s rear lights had snow on them.

During the stop, the suit alleges, Wilber fabricated a crime, leading the woman to spend 13 days in jail — “during which time she was subjected to body scans and an invasive cavity examination because of Wilber’s false assertions,” according to ACLU-NH.

“The allegations against Mr. Wilber … are outrageous and reflect both a gross miscarriage of justice and a complete breakdown of the criminal justice system at every level,” said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of ACLU-NH.

“In this historic moment of conversation about police accountability nationally and here in New Hampshire, the State Police should take a position of transparency — not secrecy — concerning one of its troopers who engaged in potential misconduct,” Bissonnette said.

“There is simply no legal justification for the State Police’s effort to keep this information secret in this case. It only undermines trust and confidence in law enforcement,” he said, adding that “this secrecy also runs contrary to recent police reform efforts in New Hampshire and shows that we still have a long way to go.”

The incident, according to Bissonnette, “also highlights the concerning use of pretextual stops by the State Police’s Mobile Enforcement Team, of which Mr. Wilber was a member.

“A pretextual stop is a traffic stop that an officer says was made for one reason (like a minor traffic or vehicle equipment violation), but where this reason is actually a ‘pretext,’ meaning the officer actually made the stop for a different reason that would not provide a lawful basis for the stop, such as finding the driver’s race, location, sex, car, or record ‘suspicious,'” Bissonnette said.

“Pretextual stops are especially concerning because they can lead to significant racial disparities.”

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

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