Officer Hunter grew up in Rochester where he graduated from Spaulding High School.  He then went on to NHTI where he graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice.  While completing his coursework at NHTI, Officer Hunter was an intern at Farmington Police Department for 4 months.

Officer Owen grew up in Pelham where he graduated from Pelham High School.  He worked in the private sector until he was hired as a part time officer with the Strafford Police Dept.

Both officers joined the department on June 29th and are currently assigned to Field Training Officers.  They will be attending the 153rd New Hampshire Police Academy in August.

NORMAN MARCOTTE, AGE 30

16 WAKEFIELD STREET, APT. B

ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

MARCOTTE was charged with two counts of Possession of Controlled Drug (methamphetamine) and one count of Manufacturing a Controlled Drug (methamphetamine). Marcotte refused bail and is being held at the Strafford County Jail pending arraignment on July 6, 2010 at 11:30 AM at Rochester District Court.

A resident at 532 Chestnut Hill Road called 911 after Marcotte came into the residence stating that the shed was on fire due to the lab exploding. Farmington Police and Fire Departments immediately responded.

The shed was completely obliterated during the explosion and subsequent fire. Firefighters from the Farmington Fire Department had to use extreme caution due to the nature of the fire. The fire spread to the woods immediately surrounding the shed but was extinguished within 30 minutes. However, members of the Fire Department remained on scene during most of the duration of the investigation.

The Farmington Police Department conducted an initial investigation that resulted in the issuance of a search warrant for the property. With the assistance of agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and a chemist from the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Lab, officers recovered items associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Officers remained on scene investigating this incident until about 1:00 PM today. Prior to leaving, the Police Department also had the town’s Code Enforcement Officer respond to the residence.

The main threat will be for damaging winds that could exceed 60 mph in the severest storms along with frequent lightning, hail, very heavy rainfall. There is the possibility of an isolated tornado. All of Connecticut, Western Mass, and New Hampshire south of Concord are at a risk for these damaging winds. The remainder of New Hampshire north of Concord will see a risk of severe thunderstorms but the winds speeds will be less, in the 40-50 mph range

It is anticipated activity should end around 6pm in Western Mass and Connecticut and 8pm across New Hampshire.

The robberies include the April 5 robbery of the Ocean National Bank in Stratham, the April 12 robbery of the Citizen’s Bank in Rollinsford, and the April 13 robberies of the TD Banks in Dover and Farmington.

Bo Rodden, 19, of Berwick, Maine, faces the most charges. Rodden is charged with bank robbery, for the Stratham robbery; three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, for his involvement in robberies in Rollinsford, Dover and Farmington; and two counts of aiding and abetting bank robbery, for the Dover and Farmington robberies.

Rodden was previously indicted federally in Maine for the March 31 robbery of the TD Bank in Newport.

Also charged were:

Christopher Hildreth, 22, of Kittery, Maine, two counts of bank robbery for the Dover and Farmington robberies and two counts on conspiracy for the same robberies.

Eric J. Nielson, 19, of South Berwick, Maine, one count of bank robbery and one count of conspiracy for the Rollinsford robbery.

Jacob R. Brown, 19, of Columbia, Conn., one count of bank robbery for the Farmington robbery and three counts of conspiracy to commit bank robbery for the robberies in Rollinsford, Dover and Farmington.

Bethany Colson, 22, of Kittery, Maine, two counts of conspiracy for the robberies in Dover and Farmington.

Authorities have said that all five were involved in the planning and execution of the robberies in some capacity.

All five robberies were similar in nature.

The robberies featured similar notes and two of them, Dover and Newport, Maine, included suspects wearing fishing-style hats. All the robberies included notes being passed to the tellers and only the Rollinsford one involved a weapon being shown.

Don Feith, who is prosecuting the case for U.S. Attorney’s Office in Concord, said there will be no weapon charges in connection to the Rollinsford robbery but declined to say why. He also declined to discuss the cases, beyond confirming the indictments.

Rodden and Colson are scheduled for arraignment today in Concord.

Brown and Nielson are scheduled for arraignment June 3, while Hildreth is scheduled for arraignment June 9.

In a compliance check, local law enforcement and New Hampshire Liquor Commission Bureau of Enforcement personnel send an underage buyer into a licensed establishment to purchase an alcoholic beverage. To assure the public that compliance checks are conducted in a fair manner and utilizing persons that appear underage, the underage buyers are previously selected by an Age Assessment Panel comprised of qualified citizens of the community. The underage buyer attempts to purchase an alcoholic beverage and produces their valid driver’s license when asked by the clerk.

Alcohol is a major contributing factor to a wide variety of crimes committed by youthful offenders. Research has taught us that the earlier teenagers start drinking, the more likely they will become addicted to alcohol or other drugs. Statistics show that alcohol is involved in the three leading causes of death for young people. In the most recent (2009) Youth Risk Behavioral Study for this region, 71% of high school students responded that it was easy or very easy to obtain beer wine or hard liquor and 36% responded that they drank at least one alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days.

Reducing the availability of alcohol to youth at the source and holding the “gatekeepers” accountable, is an effective strategy in reducing crime and mortality of our youth. In addition to the deterrent effect this initiative has in reducing the sale of alcoholic beverages to underage persons, the compliance checks are a valuable educational tool when conducted in a community wide effort. The NH Liquor Commission Bureau of Enforcement also offers TEAM alcohol server/sales training sessions for the businesses licensed to sell alcohol.

These compliance checks are funded through the Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Grant Program. This project was supported by Grant No. 2008AHFX0019 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice.

The new community resources section of farmingtonpd.com is a work in progress, according to Lt. Kevin Willey, who is taking submissions from the community for the new section.

“We receive phone calls all the time from people on things that are not law issues,” said Willey. “As a small town, the police department serves as a catch-all social services agency. We want to have a resources section set aside on the Website so people can check that out.”

Willey wants the community resources section something of an electronic handbook that residents can refer to whenever something comes up not related to crime or actions of the police department.

He said other communities provide links to other agencies on their website, and Farmington does the same now, but he wants to take it a step further. The website’s frequently asked questions section is currently sizable, Willey said, and this will allow residents to view all their available resources in one place.

“We want to include a breakdown on each resource,” he said. “There’s going to be an explanation of what the resources provide. It will say, ‘For this, go here.’”

Willey provided some examples of the types of resources that will be included, like Strafford County Community Action, CHANCES and Community Partners among many others. He acknowledged this is a project that will take some time to complete and have it be an extended list of resources.

“It’s a fairly ambitious project,” he said. “It’s not going to be put together in short order. We want to put out the most accurate information possible.”

Willey got a major assist in this endeavor from the Farmington Community Preservation Program, a program of the Strafford Network. They produce a “Resource Guide for Farmington Residents” that contains much of the information Willey is looking for as part of the resource section.

Program Coordinator Heather Hesse-Stromberg updates the guide monthly and distributes it every six months to various sites in Farmington.

Willey is looking for items like web links or downloadable or viewable brochures for the community resources section.

Information on possible entries for the community resources section can be sent to Farmington Police’s webmaster at membrey (at) farmingtonpd (dot) com.

This article is from Foster’s Daily Democrat’s May 10, 2010 edition.

If residents are interested in having it placed on a certain road or have questions, please e-mail kwilley@farmingtonpd.com.