Editor’s note: All sexual assault charges against former Concord psychologist Foad Afshar, who was accused of molesting a patient, were dropped by the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office in October 2018.
Foad Afshar’s attorney is claiming the victim’s mother in his August sexual-assault conviction had influence in his transfer to a maximum security prison out of state.
Afshar of Bow was sentenced Aug. 26 to three to six years in prison for one felony count of aggravated sexual assault and an alternative misdemeanor count of simple assault, as well as two counts of unlawful mental health practice, both misdemeanors. The charges stemmed from an accusation that Afshar touched a young patient’s genitals during a session Jan. 6, 2015, and had allowed his license to practice to lapse at the time of the crime.
Ted Lothstein, who is representing Afshar, wrote in his Jan. 3 request for a new trial through Merrimack County District Court that two of the jurors who sat on the case did not disclose their status as childhood sexual abuse survivors, and that Afshar received ineffective counseling. But in his request for a bail hearing, Lothstein states that the victim’s mother is an employee at the state prison, and used her official email to communicate with the probation officer who was preparing Afshar’s pre-sentencing report.
He implies that this communication led to Afshar being transported from the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Cedar Junction in South Walpole, Mass., in November. Prior to being moved to Berlin, Afshar was incarcerated at the Merrimack County House of Corrections.
“She repeatedly contacted the probation officer assigned to write the PSR using her official Department of Corrections email rather than a personal account, inappropriately crossing the line between her role as an employee of the Department of Corrections and her role as the mother,” Lothstein wrote. “All of this gives rise to serious questions regarding the true reasons for the exile of Dr. Afshar to one of the most notorious prisons for hardcore, incorrigible offenders in northern New England.”
Department of Corrections spokesman Jeffrey Lyons confirmed the mother worked at the prison, but otherwise declined to comment. The name of the mother has been withheld to protect the victim’s identity.
Court documents show that Scott Dodge, a parole officer with the state, did compile the pre-sentencing
report, and Dodge confirmed he had spoken to the victim’s mother, but did not
say whether the mother had used her work email to correspond with him and referred other inquiries to Lyons.
“State department emails should be used for state department purposes,” Lyons said.
Lothstein would not comment on how he learned of the emails, nor would he provide them to the Monitor, saying “It will all have to come out in court.” He said neither he, nor Afshar’s family had been informed of his move to a new prison or the reasons for his move. In his motion, Lothstein said Afshar had no disciplinary issues when he was incarcerated at Merrimack County House of Corrections or at the state prison in Berlin.
Lyons confirmed that Afshar had been transferred, but he declined to say where or why. He said it is not uncommon for inmates to be transferred for a variety of reasons. He said transfers are usually made for the security of either the facility or the inmate, especially in high-profile cases. For instance, he said, a police officer who is convicted of a crime may be at risk from other inmates whom the officer may have arrested.
Michael Kandle, a colleague of Afshar, said his friend had received at least two death threats while incarcerated at Merrimack, but had heard no instances of similar threats while he was in Berlin. As of his last contact with Afshar two weeks ago, Kandle said he was being held in a cell for 22 hours a day. Kandle believes Afshar is undergoing placement evaluation while officials decide the best place to house him.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to remove the initials of the victim and mother, which were included in court documents.