Mark Brave, the former Strafford County Sheriff, was sentenced Monday to serve at least 3 ½ years in jail after pleading guilty to theft and perjury charges.
Brave was also ordered to pay restitution of nearly $19,000, which is the amount of public money prosecutors said he improperly spent on frequent trips with romantic partners during his more than two years in elected office. Brave admitted he lied to investigators and a grand jury in an attempt to cover up his actions, but sought leniency from the court, noting that he has sole custody of his daughter.
State prosecutors had sought a longer sentence — up to 14 years in jail — alleging his repeated lies tarnished the reputation of law enforcement officers and deserved stiff punishment.
After hearing arguments Monday, Judge Dan St. Hilaire told Brave that he “had the world at your fingertips, and then just threw that all away.”
Under the terms of the sentence, Brave will be eligible for parole after 3 ½ years, though if he participates in programming while incarcerated, that could be reduced. He was also handed down a 10 ½ to 21 year suspended sentence on three other charges.
Brave, who made history in 2020 when he became the first Black man in New Hampshire to be elected sheriff, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
A series of lies
During Monday’s sentencing, Joe Fincham, a prosecutor with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office, spent nearly 30 minutes detailing Brave’s misuse of a county credit card. Those expenses included repeated trips out of state — to Florida, Baltimore and Boston — often accompanied by a string of different romantic partners. Brave repeatedly lied on his expense forms about the nature of his travel, fabricating meetings with other officials and trainings that never took place.
Brave compounded those lies during interviews with investigators, and then while testifying before a grand jury. Security camera footage captured him inside of hotel lobbies with women while he claimed he was alone. After his arrest, his bail conditions restricted him to New Hampshire and trips to Massachusetts related to his daughter’s schooling, but footage from inside of airports showed he took numerous trips to Florida in recent months.
Brave read from a statement Monday: “I was afraid, and in my fear, I tried to protect the life that I had built, and my daughter’s.”
Brave asked the court to impose a suspended jail sentence, so that he could continue to care for his child and earn money to pay restitution.
But Fincham told the court that Brave’s repeated lies had a serious effect on the people of Strafford County, and beyond.
“The damage done to the reputation, not just to the Strafford County Sheriff’s Department, but to law enforcement generally, cannot be quantified,” Fincham said.
