By Annmarie Timmins
The Concord Monitor
CONCORD, N.H., — Shawn Mitchell, the former fire official who gave away Concord’s fire equipment and misused a city-issued credit card, is serving the rest of his jail sentence at home because he injured himself while working.
Mitchell, 38, was about two months into his four-month sentence when he rolled a construction truck June 4 while on a work release program, said his attorney Mark Sisti. Mitchell broke his back in the accident, Sisti said, and was too injured to remain in jail.
Sisit had filed an earlier request to swap jail for home confinement in May, citing at that time Mitchell’s inability to get adequate mental health care at the jail, according to court records.
Sisti was awaiting a court hearing on the initial request when Mitchell was injured.
Mitchell, once Concord’s deputy chief and Webster’s chief, was charged in 2006 with 41 criminal charges involving theft of fire equipment and misuse of credit cards.
Twenty-five of the charges accused Mitchell of taking or giving away nearly $14,000 of Concord’s fire equipment and illegally putting about $830 in purchases on a city credit card. The remaining 16 charges are tied to the case in Webster. They allege Mitchell used a town-issued credit card to buy online pornography.
The Webster charges are still pending. Mitchell reached a plea deal on the Concord charges in January, in which all but two of the charges were dropped: one of theft by unauthorized taking and one of fraudulent use of a credit card.
Smukler granted Mitchell’s request for home confinement June 10, according to court records.
Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway, who prosecuted the case for the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office, objected to Mitchell’s first request for home confinement, telling the court it “undermines the punitive impact of the sentence,” according to court records.
Hathaway withdrew his objection after Mitchell was hurt. He did so for a few reasons, he said yesterday.
The county would have had to pay Mitchell’s medical bills if he was at the jail, and jail staff would have been required to transport him to rehabilitation appointments. But Hathaway also concluded Mitchell’s injuries were too severe for him to remain in jail.
“The only reason I assented was the injury to Mr. Mitchell led to logistical and cost concerns as well as humanitarian concerns,” Hathaway said.
At Mitchell’s sentencing, Hathaway had argued for six months of more time than Smukler handed down. When Mitchell immediately requested work release after arriving at the jail, Hathaway objected. Work release allows inmates to leave the jail during the day to work.
Hathaway asked that Mitchell be held to jail rules, which say an inmate must serve one-third of his or her sentence before being granted work release. By the time Smukler granted the request in late April, Mitchell had served the amount of time required by the rules.
While on work release, Mitchell was driving buses for Trailways Transportation Center in Portsmouth and working for a construction company in Londonderry. He was injured while driving a construction vehicle, Sisti said.
Mitchell is recuperating in a back brace and is unable to work now, Sisti said. His sentence ends in late September, but with credit for good time he will be finished in late July. He will be on probation and under a suspended sentence after his release.
Mitchell is living in Raymond, according to court records. He could not be reached yesterday.
Copyright 2010 ProQuest Information and Learning
All Rights Reserved
ProQuest SuperText
Copyright 2010 Concord Monitor/Sunday Monitor