August, 2024
Salem, N.H. District Cout Judge Zaino ruled last month that Lawrence Homeless Coordinator Kelly Birchall Frazier cannot use a harassment order and the violence against women act to stop Valley Patriot publisher Tom Duggan from reporting on her attempt to steer $200K in federal funds to her own non-profit (IVCS) as a public employee of the City of Lawrence.
Duggan had been gagged for 127 days by the judge who initially ruled he could not publish his story.
After telling the court she had a stroke on a Friday and had lost her vision so she was unable to make a hearing the following Monday, Kelly then went live the next day (Saturday) on Facebook riding around with her husband on a motorcycle. The court did nothing about the deception.
When the delayed hearing actually took place, the judge ruled that Frazier could not use the harassment order to silence Duggan’s right of free speech and freedom of the press.
“This order does not prohibit defendant from posting and commenting on petitioner’s public duties as charges of official wrong or neglect may be expressed by way of argument to the public.” Judge Michael Zaino concluded at the second hearing.
FRAZIER TRIED TO STOP INVESTIGATIVE
REPORTS USING HARASSMENT ORDERS
On March 8th Valley Patriot publisher Tom Duggan posted on Facebook that the following day he was releasing his findings of a year-long investigation into Lawrence’s Homeless Coordinator Kelly Birchall Frazier (see story next page).
Within hours a North Andover Police Officer knocked on the door of the Valley Patriot and handed Duggan a harassment orders out of Salem, NH where Frazier claimed Duggan had threatened her life on his podcast.
One of the provisions of the order was that Duggan was not allowed to publish anything about Frazier, especially on social media, thereby killing Duggan’s story.
Frazier claimed in the court filings under pains and penalties of perjury that Duggan gave out her home address on his podcast and told people to go to her home and harass her. The video below is what Duggan actually said on his podcast.
She also claimed Duggan posted a photo on Facebook “of me and my husband with threats”.
The photo Duggan posted was only of her husband Debo Brown at Duggan’s Charity Bash the year before. Kelly Birchall Frazier was not in the photo, nor was there a threat of physical violence.
She further claimed that because Duggan made an analogy about the Facebook war between he and her husband Debo, and the war in Gaza – where Duggan said there would be no more cease-fires between them (because Debo had violated their agreements multiple times in the past) she was “in fear of my life” because he said he has tanks that are going to roll over the Gaza border!!
WOMEN IN FEAR DON’T SEEK OUT THEIR ATTACKERS
After claiming she was so in fear for her life from Tom Duggan that she needed a harassment order, Frazier showed up at The Valley Patriot’s 20th Anniversary Charity Bash on March 26th while the order was still in effect.
Kelly and her husband Donald (Aka Debo Brown) walked past the open door of Duggan’s party while he was giving out scholarships at the Relief’s In, in Lawrence, and sat at the bar with Jackie Marmol knowing that when the scholarship night is over every year, the after-party is always in the bar.
“She was trying to put me in jail. If someone hadn’t come and told me they saw her walk in, we all would have gone to the bar after like we always do, and she would be on the phone with the cops saying I was harassing her and violating the order,” Duggan said that night.
When a hearing was held on April 1st, to determine if Duggan was a danger to Frazier, she was a no-show and Judge Zaino dismissed the harassment order.
Frazier appeared hours later asking for reconsideration because she was late, but Judge Zaino denied that request.
“COMING TOMORROW”
ANOTHER ORDER
After the dismissal, Duggan published a story on The Valley Patriot website detailing how Frazier used a harassment order in New Hampshire to try and stop his expose of her actions as a city employee in Lawrence.
But, hours after posting that story on Facebook under the heading “Coming tomorrow the story Kelly Frazier tried to stop you from seeing”, Duggan was served with another harassment order alleging all the same facts that had already been dismissed twice.
This time Frazier actually admitted in writing that she only filed the order because of Duggan’s news story saying “he put lies on me”.
During the hearing on that harassment order Frazier told the court that she was also in fear of her life because “he put lies on me and accused me of stealing $3 Million dollars from the homeless. The homeless population in Lawrence are violent, they are criminals, and they are mentally ill. I’m afraid they are going to attack me because of what Duggan said.”
Frazier claimed because of her fear of the homeless she could no longer do her job, but the following Monday was back to work with a full schedule.
The matter is now before the New Hampshire Supreme Court.◊
RELATES STORIES (COMING)
Valley Patriot Publisher Tom Duggan Arrested/Found Not Guilty on Bogus Charges
Lawrence Homeless Coordinator Kelly Frazier Tried to Steer $200K in Fed Funds to her Own Non Profit