Statement of Joe Kelly Levasseur made on February 12, 2014 at the end of his MPTS television show in reaction the report of the NH Attorney General determining the allegations he JKLmade were “unfounded” and “untruthful.”

“The AG did come down, Chief Mara did ask for an investigation into some of my concerns and allegations concerning individuals in trying to intimidate myself and a client of mine.  I’m not going to name her at this point.  That will come out at some other day.

“But I will tell people this.  Four years ago, and I’ve brought this before, four weeks into my first term Chief Mara called my restaurant and asked if he could come meet with me and I said ‘sure come on in.’  He came in with his Captain Willard at the time, walked into the back room of the restaurant where the bar is and told me in no uncertain terms that now that I was an alderman ‘you will no longer, you are no longer allowed to criticize the police department anymore.’

“When he made that statement I said “why” and he said ‘because I was an employee of the city now…You’re not allowed to criticize the Manchester Police Department.’

“I told him in no uncertain terms as you know I would and did and Arthur Beaudry was there I’m sure he will tell you if you ask him I was quite loud when I said ‘you will not come into my restaurant and tell me what I will say on my TV show.’  Ever since that, my life has been made hell by Chief Mara, sometimes by Mr. Maloney and many times by Mayor Gatsas.

“They then tried to have me investigated for making some allegations.  The AG’s Office came out today and said that Mr. Levasseur is not going to be found liable for any false allegations, that we’re not going to have him arrested and we’re not going to be bringing any charges against him.  So, I’m very happy that was the determination by the AG’s Office.

“They did say that I was untruthful in one of my allegations concerning an officer.  I will not go into that today or right now, but I will talk about it next week because my attorney told me to shut my mouth and I’m going to listen to my attorney until we get to the bottom of that particular thing.  But they did say I didn’t lie, but then said that I was untruthful about one issue.  But there was a three hour interview and a lot of things were uncovered and a lot of things were talked about.

“It’s amazing to me that the chief of police can allow things like this to occur under his tutelage and the safety of an elected official and a person who was a victim, an alleged victim of an assault can be allowed to be intimidated by members of his department and go untouched, no discipline, no corrective action whatsoever.  That’s the times we live in.  That’s the city we live in and if anybody thinks I’m going to walk away, resign or quit because of something that Chief Mara says to me, does to me or continues to try to do, they just don’t know me well enough.”

NOTE:  Click here for the Attorney General’s complete report.

NOTE:  In response to our request for comment, Levasseur sent this email.