Man accused of rape wants record cleared of dropped charges

By LYNNE TUOHY

Associated Press

Published: 04-29-2016 11:22 PM

A New Hampshire man charged with kidnapping and raping a teenage girl over the course of nine months wants his record erased of already-dropped charges that he threatened a state prosecutor, saying the allegations caused “irreparable harm” to his reputation.

In a handwritten memorandum of law filed last week, Nathaniel Kibby said his record should be cleared of charges – dropped two months ago by a county attorney – that he threatened Associate Attorney General Jane Young, the lead prosecutor in the rape case.

Kibby described the charges – filed by a county attorney to avoid conflict of interest claims – as “a malicious publicity stunt, having conspired with the attorney general’s office, to promote a media spectacle, defame the defendant’s reputation and prejudice his potential jury pool.”

Cheshire County Attorney Chris McLaughlin, who filed the charges in 2015, would not comment on why he dropped them. They stemmed from a recorded phone conversation between a jailed Kibby and a friend. In the conversation, Kibby refers to Young in vulgar language, detailing what he plans to do to her.

McLaughlin has objected to Kibby’s request that the charges be erased.

Kibby’s attorney, Jesse Friedman, would not comment on Kibby’s jailhouse lawyering. Kibby asked for a hearing on his request, preferably after the resolution of the rape case in Belknap County, “due to the burden of trial preparation.”

Kibby is scheduled to go to trial in June on more than 200 felony charges related to the October 2013 kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl. Prosecutors say he held her captive at his Gorham trailer and a storage container on his property. They say Kibby used death threats, a stun gun, zip ties and a shock collar to control the teen.

The girl returned to her North Conway home July 20, 2014, but prosecutors and court documents have not detailed how that came about.

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