A Salem man pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to harass and intimidate two journalists at New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) by throwing bricks and rocks through windows and spray painting slurs on their homes with red paint, the Department of Justice said this week.
Tucker Cockerline, 32, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and the use of a facility of interstate commerce in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass., federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for March 19, 2024.
Cockerline was initially arrested and charged by criminal complaint in June along with alleged co-conspirators Michael Waselchuck, 35, of Seabrook and Keenan Saniatan, 36, of Nashua. The men were indicted by a federal grand jury along with Eric Labarge, 46, of Nashua in September.
The alleged harassment and vandalism of the victims’ homes and the home of one of the victim’s immediate family members involved thrown bricks and large rocks, as well as lewd and threatening language spray-painted on garage doors, according to court documents. The incidents occurred on five separate occasions in April and May 2022.
Following a yearlong investigation, NHPR’s Lauren Chooljian reported on allegations of sexual misconduct by Eric Spofford, founder of an extensive network of addiction rehabilitation centers in New Hampshire. According to a report in the New York Times, Chooljian’s house in Massachusetts was attacked less than two days after NHPR refused to take down Chooljian’s article, which appeared during and after March 2022.
Spofford sued NHPR and Chooljian for libel. A judge found no “actual malice” in the reporting.
According to allegations in the charging document, the following incidents occurred in in April and May 2022:
On April 24, a brick was thrown through a front window of a victim’s former home in Hanover. The word “c---” was spray-painted in large red letters on the front door.
Between the evening of April 24 and the morning of April 25, the word “c---” was spray-painted in large red letters on the front door of the second victim’s home in Concord. The house was damaged by a large rock that appeared to have been thrown.
During the same time period, a softball-sized rock was thrown through the front window of the primary victim’s parents’ home in Hampstead. The word “c---’’ was spray-painted in large red letters on a garage door.
In May, the victim’s parents’ home was vandalized again. The same word was spray-painted on the garage door, and a brick was discovered near the home’s foundation as if it had been thrown at the house.
On May 21, a brick was thrown through an exterior window of the primary victim’s house in Melrose, Mass. “JUST THE BEGINNING” was spray-painted in large letters on the home.
Concord, Hampstead and Hanover police, the Melrose, Mass., police, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Hampshire assisted in the investigation. The case is being prosecuted in Boston.
One of the incidents was captured on the homeowner’s Ring doorbell camera.
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