After a former deputy sheriff’s conviction for sexually assaulting an inmate was overturned last week, Republican Senate leaders are saying a top priority next year is tightening a law that bars corrections workers from having sex with inmates but covers only authorities directly employed by the prison.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court pointed out the ambiguity when it tossed the conviction of a former Belknap County law enforcement officer accused of sexually assaulting an inmate he transported to the state prison.
According to state statute, inmates can’t legally consent to sex with someone who has authority over them by virtue of being “employed” at the correctional facility.
Ernest Justin Blanchette’s attorneys argued that the prosecutors failed to prove he was working under the direction of either the Belknap Country Jail or the New Hampshire State Prison for Women when he had sex with an inmate he transported to and from the prison.
State prosecutors disagreed, saying the woman was incapable of consenting as an inmate. Furthermore, they argued, Blanchette had been grooming her for months by giving her cigarettes and letting her use a phone.
The justices ruled Monday the trial court should have granted Blanchette’s motion to dismiss based on lack of evidence. At the end of the four-page decision, however, they invited state lawmakers to clarify the law for future cases because both the state and Blanchette’s defense had presented plausible arguments.
“Although we have resolved the present appeal without addressing the merits of the parties’ interpretations of the statutory language, the disagreement persists: accordingly, we invite the legislature to amend the language in the (law) to clarify its intent with regard to the meaning of the phrase at issue,” the justices wrote.
Senate Minority Leader Jeb Bradley said the issue will be taken up in 2018, the second year of the legislative session.
Blanchette, 36, was originally convicted on one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault in April 2016 after a jury found he had used his authority as a law enforcement officer to coerce his victim into having sex. He admitted the encounter had taken place, but both he and the woman described the incident as consensual.