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Merrimack man faces felony charge for alleged meddling in 2021 special election

The exterior of the New Hampshire Department of Justice in Concord.
NHPR File Photo

A Merrimack man is facing a felony charge for allegedly interfering with the communications of Republican state Rep. Bill Boyd during a special election in April 2021.

Michael Drouin, 30, is accused of knowingly blocking access to Boyd’s communication equipment “with the intent of interfering with campaign activity.”

Boyd, who is also a Merrimack town councilor, was at the time a candidate vying to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Dick Hinch, who died from COVID-19 just days after winning election as Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in late 2020.

Prosecutors say Drouin placed a false ad on Craigslist, promising a free trailer and listing Boyd’s cell phone number.

According to prosecutors, Boyd turned off his phone after receiving “more than 37 phone calls or text messages in 45 minutes” on the morning of the 2021 special election. Boyd later won that election over Democrat Wendy Thomas, a former state representative, by almost 400 votes.

Joe Sweeney of Salem, who at the time served as executive director for the New Hampshire Republican Party, brought the matter to prosecutors on the day of the election.

Investigators later subpoenaed Craigslist and Comcast, and determined the ad was placed from a Hampton condominium where Drouin had been a tenant.

When contacted by investigators in October 2021, Drouin, who was then a registered Democrat who investigators said claimed to be a Republican, “denied creating a false ad for a free trailer.” Drouin later characterized the ad as “a joke,” according to investigators.

“I meant no harm,” Drouin said, according to an investigator’s affidavit.

Drouin denied the ad was connected to Boyd’s special election, and called the Election Day posting “bad timing.”

Drouin also told investigators he would have to bring Boyd, a Facebook friend, “out to dinner; make up for this” and not “get hooked up in the court system.”

Boyd, meanwhile, told investigators he knew Drouin, because he’d sought an appointment to the Merrimack town Conservation Committee, and he’d accepted Drouin’s invitation to be his friend on Facebook, because he was “a constituent.”

Boyd also told an investigator that Drouin later wrote to him about “a prank” that had “terrible timing with the election.”

Drouin was indicted by a Hillsborough County grand jury earlier this month. The first hearing in his case is scheduled for early next year.

If convicted, Drouin could face up to seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine.

Josh has worked at NHPR since 2000.
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