Investigators have cleared a top state Democratic official of child pornography allegations.
Manchester Democrat Raymond Buckley was the subject of an investigation after a one-time friend and former housemate, GOP State Representative Steve Vaillancourt, sent an accusatory letter to the Governor.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers has more.
The allegations made against Raymond Buckley late last year put his name in the headlines and scuttled his all but certain election as state Democratic Party Chairman……But after a two months investigation, Manchester police officials and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte say the claims Buckley faced proved hollow.
"Simply put, Mr. Vaillancourt's allegations that Mr. Buckley was involved in the possession of child pornography were unsubstatiiated and unfounded and that's what our investigation revealed."
Ayotte added that the evidence against Buckley was so lacking that prosecutors even weighed charging Steve Vaillancourt with making a false report to police.
"We seriously considered bringing charges agaist Mr. Vaillancourt, however, the statute requires that someone knowingly made a false report to law enforcement. Mr. Vaillancourt orginally brought this letter to the governor's attention, and even by his own admission, not for the purposes of initiating a criminal investigation."
Even so, Steve Vaillancourt could still find himself in court. ……Moments after the Attorney General cleared him,, Buckley's Attorney John Kacavas, told reporters that his client had suffered personally and professionally, and was mulling a lawsuit.
"Accusing someone baselessly of a crime is the definition of defamation. But to accuse someone of this kind of crime is human savagery as far as I'm concerned. This is devestating. It has devestated him, it devestated his family and friends, and it devastated a lifelong goal."
The man who started this controversy, Steve Vaillancourt, attended the news conference -- taping it with a hand held video camera. He then led reporters across street,for a press conference of his own.
"I'm not sure where you'd like me to begin. I guess it's always good to quote those Dixie Chicks, 'I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down.'"
Vaillancourt went on to reiterate the claims the prompted the investigation -- that Raymond Buckley possesed child pornography and made sexual remarks about prepubescent boys. Vaillancourt and offered to take a lie detector test, answer questions under hypnosis, or ingest truth serum to prove his point. He also invoked the OJ Simpson trial, saying investigators were completely incompetent.
"This investigation takes me back to when mark Furman found one glove behind Kato Kailen's house, and detective Vanatter was running around Los Angeles for 30 miles, with a vial of blood. Not since then, has an investigation been as botched as this one."
Vaillancourt added that he didn't fear a civil suit, because that would give him the chance to put witnesses under oath and prove what they told investigators was not true……He ended by saying that he wished he had reported Buckley to the police years ago, but said otherwise, he has no regrets.
"Don't worry about me, I have only been happier two other times in my life. Once when in my senior year of college I was extremely happy -- good times; when I fell in love I was extremely happy; and now. I think it's like a giant cloud has been lifted from my soul."
If Ray Buckley chooses to sue Steve Vaillancourt for defamation he must do so within the next three years.
