Supreme Court Rules Against Judge John P. Arnold’s Decision To Sentence Man Twice For The Same Crime

Read the section of the article highlighted in yellow.  How is it that a NH Judge doesn’t know the law on Double Jeopardy and that it takes a trip to the Supreme Court to bring this out?  Any Part Time Police Officer in the State of NH is taught that you can’t charge and convict someone twice for the same crime.  Is this another example of Judge Arnold’s incompetence?  With decisions like this, what does it mean for people going through family court in front of this Judge?  What does it mean when this Judge signs off on Master David Forrest’s decisions? 

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Judge keeps same sentence

Former teacher argued for more probation, less jail time

By Casey Farrar
Sentinel Staff

Published:

Thursday, January 6, 2011 12:17 PM EST

Despite winning an appeal from the state’s highest court last year, a former Marlborough School teacher will still serve six months in jail on a child pornography conviction.

Bryan T. Farr, 35, was in Cheshire County Superior Court Wednesday for a re-sentencing.

In early 2009, Farr pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and delivering child pornography, both felonies.

On the conviction for delivering child pornography, Farr was sentenced to a year at the Cheshire County jail with six months suspended for three years.

He received a suspended prison sentence of three to six years, with 10 years of probation for his conviction on possession of child pornography.

But following a N.H. Supreme Court decision in October that ruled Farr could not be charged with both counts because they were for the same crime, prosecutors and Farr’s attorney agreed that the possession charge and its prison sentence would be dropped.
 
During the re-sentencing hearing Wednesday, Farr’s public defender, Thomas A. Barnard, asked that Superior Court Judge John P. Arnold increase the amount of suspended jail time in exchange for a longer probation period.

Barnard proposed that Arnold uphold the one-year jail sentence, and increase the suspended time from six to nine months. In exchange, Farr would agree to be on probation for 10 years — seven years longer than ordered in his original sentence — and submit to random computer searches.

Farr, a former Swanzey resident who now lives in Massachusetts, has been out on bail since his arrest, was married in September 2009 and has no other criminal record, Barnard said.

At the time of his arrest, Farr worked as a Marlborough School science teacher.

His teaching credentials were revoked following his felony conviction, according to documents from the N.H. Department of Education.

“He lost not only his job, but his career,” Barnard said in court Wednesday.

Barnard also argued that Farr has faced punishment in the community because his personal reputation was badly damaged by an error in an article that appeared in The Sentinel in 2006.

The Sentinel article, which cited court documents, said that Keene police Sgt. James F. McLaughlin was posing on the Internet as a 14-year-old boy when Farr sent him a video of two young boys engaged in sexual activities. But McLaughlin’s phony online profile actually said he was 20 years old, according to an affidavit prepared by McLaughlin.

“It’s impossible to underestimate the degree to which that (newspaper article) devastated Mr. Farr’s reputation and standing in the community,” Barnard said.

Assistant Cheshire County Attorney John S. Webb said that while prosecutors agreed with increasing Farr’s probation time, they did not support suspending more of Farr’s jail sentence.

At the close of the hearing, Arnold said neither Farr’s good conduct since his arrest nor the effect of the newspaper article should change the original sentence. He sentenced Farr to one year in jail, with six months suspended, and three years probation.

Casey Farrar can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or cfarrar@keenesentinel.com.

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