In a phone call that lasted one minute and 14 seconds, a Berlin police officer wrongly determined that Michael Gleason posed no danger to himself and his estranged wife.
One of his friends had contacted the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office on July 4 to warn that Gleason had made troubling comments about killing both himself and Marisol Fuentes.
Fuentes had taken out a restraining order against Gleason after he sexually assaulted her, took her cell phone and stole her $8,000 life savings.
When Berlin police were alerted, Corporal Jarod Beal called Gleason, who denied knowing the person who had reported him. He said he didn’t need any help.
Beal took no further action after the call, according to an internal investigation by the Berlin Police Department . He did not contact Gleason’s friend, try to locate Gleason, or warn Fuentes about her husband’s threats against her.
Two days later, Gleason walked into La Casita restaurant in Berlin and shot and killed Fuentes before turning the gun on himself.
The internal investigation released Friday called the handling of the welfare check on Gleason a “glaring failure,” one of several missteps by the police department that culminated in the murder and suicide on July 6.
Lyn Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said calls like this must be treated with the highest level of urgency.
“A victim’s life should never ever depend on whether one individual officer connects the dots in real time,” she said. “We are all left wondering, what if someone else had known that this phone call was so inadequate? Would Marisol be alive today?”
Beal was placed on administrative leave and fired on Sept. 12 over his handling of the call, Berlin Police Chief Jeff Lemoine confirmed.
The internal review of the case was completed on October 28. It noted the department handled several calls appropriately, but mishandled others, like not properly documenting or seeking evidence to support an accusation by Fuentes that Gleason was driving past her work and home.
No interviews were conducted, no victim statements were taken and no investigation was opened into whether Gleason was stalking Fuentes.
With evidence in hand, “a decision should have been made as to whether probable cause existed that a violation of a protective order offense had been committed by Gleason.”
Schollett has seen that kind of hands-off attitude before.
“The pattern that we do see is many police departments not taking violations of protective orders seriously, and that happens repeatedly,” Schollett said. “The only way we are going to stop this domestic violence homicide is when law enforcement agencies and other systems see the full picture of the domestic violence that is happening. This was not an isolated, unpredictable tragedy.”
Lemoine apologized for the delay in releasing the report, attributing it to ongoing personal matters that have since been resolved, and offered his condolences to those affected by the shooting.
“No internal report or words of mine will ever change the tragic outcome of this incident,” he wrote. “The department recognizes the pain and concern that this event has caused the community we serve.”
The internal investigation report outlines several corrective actions the police department plans to implement. These include continued training on responding to domestic violence calls and victim trauma response training. Additionally, the report states that a new policy will be put in place requiring a supervisor to review all domestic violence-related calls for service.
Since Fuentes’ death, efforts to prevent domestic violence homicides have intensified across the state, including reforms aimed at improving how information is shared within the judicial system.
A key challenge has been that critical case details are often fragmented as they move through different stages of the criminal justice process. It hinders the ability of law enforcement to intervene promptly.
The state’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee is also reviewing the details of the case.
“We have to keep working toward change,” Schollett said. “I can’t accept any other future for victims in the state.”
