A Gilford couple is suing the police and the town in federal court, accusing officers of violating their constitutional rights after both were pulled out of their home and arrested while they were hosting a Halloween night party for teenagers.
In response to an anonymous tip about an underage party, officers walked around their property, peered in windows, lied on reports and entered the home without permission, according to the lawsuit, which relied on police body camera footage to establish its claims.
The couple accused officers of using excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution, and assault.
Stephen and Renee Legro filed the federal lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, naming officers Nathan Ayotte, Angelo Papadopoulos, and Corporal Logan Tomasetti as defendants.
The confrontation left Stephen Legro with a shattered elbow and Renee Legro with emotional trauma after she was strapped to an ambulance gurney.
“The actions of the officers were made in an intentional, wanton or reckless manner,” the lawsuit states.
Both parents were charged with disorderly conduct and the charges were later dropped on Jan 5, 2026.
Stephen Legro was arrested after a brief conversation with officers when he told them they did not have his permission to search the house. He then attempted to close the door to his home. Officer Ayotte pushed the door open and arrested him for not providing his date of birth, according to the lawsuit.
Renee Legro was arrested in a similar fashion after she identified herself to officers, asked them to leave and attempted to shut the door to her home, the suit states.
Officers had no evidence to establish any probable cause to enter the home, but did so anyway and later changed their reports to justify their actions after learning the couple had hired an attorney, the suit states.
“The family has great harm inflicted upon them on the night in question and therefore, they believe it’s appropriate to bring this lawsuit in order to vindicate their rights,” said William Christie, the attorney representing the Legros. “This type of behavior is just not acceptable in the state of New Hampshire, or elsewhere.”
Town Administrator Scott Dunn had no comment about the suit.
Sober kids
On the night of October 31, the Legros’ teenage daughter had invited around 30 classmates over for a Halloween costume party, according to the timeline in the lawsuit.
Police responded to the home after receiving an anonymous complaint teenagers were drinking inside. The couple’s attorneys suggested the call may have come from someone who wasn’t invited.
During the party, the home’s liquor cabinet was secured with an electronic lock, sections of the house were cordoned off with Halloween caution tape, and adults were present throughout the evening, the lawsuit states.
Attorneys for the Legros’ point to the officers’ own body camera footage and transcripts as evidence supporting their claims.
Body camera footage captured officers fanning out across the six-acre property before knocking on the door. Papadopoulos opened an unlocked back door, peered inside, then closed it and identified himself as police.
When Stephen answered, Papadopoulos told him there had been a “noise complaint,” which is contradicted by dispatch records, according to the lawsuit.
Of the 32 children present, 28 showed blew into a breathalyzer in order to leave and had blood alcohol levels of 0.0. The four who tested positive for some amount of alcohol, the lawsuit states, had not been served inside the house.
Among the sober children was the son of Gilford’s own police chief, Kristin Kelley.
“I just want to let you know, there’s a bunch of sober kids sitting in there,” the chief’s son told officers, according to the lawsuit. “We’re gonna speak for ourselves, we didn’t touch a drop of alcohol, we just want to get out of here.”
Meanwhile, according to the body camera footage, Tomasetti had already confided to a colleague what the evidence was showing.
“We don’t have any indication to believe that these kids are in any danger, right?” Tomasetti told a fellow officer.
This was one of several such admissions captured on body camera while the Legros sat handcuffed in cruisers outside their own home, the lawsuit states.
With the Legros in custody and unsure if they should enter the house, the officers called their supervisors for advice. They said they were concerned about underage drinking inside, but questioned whether they had enough probable cause to enter the home without a warrant.
“God damn it,” Tomasetti said after ending one of the phone calls.
Interaction with Legros
The encounter escalated quickly once officers began interacting with Stephen Legro. When Papadopoulos asked him to provide his date of birth, Legro declined and turned to go back inside, attempting to close the door behind him.
Ayotte followed him across the threshold and immediately ordered him to place his hands behind his back, the lawsuit states.
“Get out of my house,” Legro said.
The lawsuit states that “the officers did not have sufficient evidence to warrant an intrusion upon plaintiff’s home, as they acted on an inadequately corroborated anonymous tip.”
Ayotte and Papadopoulos grabbed Legro’s arms.
The force applied caused Stephen’s left elbow to fracture and resulted in injuries to his right elbow and both wrists, the lawsuit states.
Papadopoulos told Legro he was arrested for failing to comply with a “lawful order” to provide his date of birth.
New Hampshire doesn’t allow officers to arrest for refusing to provide their date of birth, the suit states.
When Renee found her husband handcuffed, she stepped to the doorway to speak with officers.
Officers had already tried calling her earlier when they first arrived. Tomasetti asked her, “Are you Renee?” She said yes. When they asked her for her name again, she said, “I’m Renee. Goodbye.” As she tried to close the door, Papadopoulos and Tomasetti reached inside and pulled her outside.
“Ow! Ow! What the hell!” she said, the lawsuit reads. “Please stop, you’re hurting me!”
“Yup,” Papadopoulos replied. “It’s going to hurt even more if you don’t comply, Renee.”
Tomasetti’s own report later acknowledged she was not under arrest when he pulled her from her home.
When she told Ayotte the handcuffs hurt, he replied, “They’re not meant for comfort.”
When she asked why they were hurting her, Ayotte said: “You haven’t been hurt yet.”
Renee told the officer she had been mauled by two dogs while pregnant, and has PTSD and was in emotional distress. She was moved from the police cruiser to the ambulance.
Tomasetti grabbed her handcuffed arms and slammed her back onto the stretcher, the suit states.
He later described her PTSD symptoms as resembling “a child throwing a temper tantrum” and wrote that she “appeared to be faking a panic attack.”
Amended Reports
The Legros were charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental operations. Those charges were dropped entirely in early January.
But the lawsuit alleges the officers revised their reports after learning the couple had hired an attorney.
Tomasetti, Papadopoulos, and Ayotte all modified their reports in late December and early January.
The complaint alleges that the original versions contained false statements directly contradicted by their own body-camera footage.
The lawsuit seeks monetary and punitive damages, alleging the department fostered a culture of tolerating excessive force through its failure to discipline officers.
Ayotte was also involved in a January 2023 incident in which Gilford Police Sergeant Douglas Wall fatally shot a teenager inside a home while responding to a mental health distress call.
Ayotte unsuccessfully discharged his TASER on the 17-year-old boy before he was shot by Wall. The Legros, like many others in town, were aware of that incident and viewed the officers’ presence as a safety threat to the children inside the home, the suit states.
“Most law enforcement agents do a great job, but unfortunately, there are law enforcement officers that don’t and where sometimes you have to bring a lawsuit to get the reform that’s necessary,” Christie said. “This is not the type of policing that the citizens of Gilford expect from their police department.”
