Salem Deputy Police Chief Cleared In Drinking Party Tip-Off Accusation

SALEM, NH — The Salem Police Department has released an investigation by a private firm into an accusation a deputy police chief he may have tipped off his sons about police response to an underage drinking party.

Deputy Police Chief Shane Smith was cleared of wrongdoing by the investigator after an accusation surfaced that an officer may have violated departmental policies and contacted him about a party on June 28, 2024, that his sons reportedly attended.

Salem Police Chief Joel Dolan said Wednesday, “to avoid any appearance of impropriety or bias,” the department hired Municipal Resources Inc. of Plymouth to investigate the matter. He called the firm “a well-regarded private investigative firm.” The report was issued to the department in December 2024. To “maintain transparency and trust within the community,” Dolan released the report.

“We took these allegations seriously,” Dolan said. “The independent investigator reviewed dispatch logs and phone records, interviewed officers and supervisors, and reviewed relevant body camera footage,and determined with certainty that the allegations are unfounded. There was no impropriety on the part of officers who responded to the incident, nor was there any impropriety on the part of Deputy Smith.”

Dolan said the complaint was also reviewed by the Public Integrity Unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the New Hampshire Police Academy Conduct Review Committee. Both agencies determined there was no indication of wrongdoing, he added.

After noise complaints were filed about a home on Hitching Post Lane on June 28, 2024, police were sent to the residence and found what they believed to be an underage drinking party. Eighteen juveniles were taken into custody, 15 were charged with unlawful possession-intoxication of alcohol, and James Kattar, the homeowner, was charged with facilitating-hosting an underage drinking party.

One of Smith’s sons, who fled the party, was not among those charged.

Kattar’s attorney, Gerard LaFlamme, hired Rob Morin, a former deputy police chief in Salem, who now heads up Maverick Investigative Services, to look into the circumstances surrounding the party as well as police procedures and how the department determined what charges to issue.

Morin and Maverick interviewed the juveniles at the party as well as parents and those who were not charged. They also learned kids were attending the party who evaded police because they ran from the scene. The investigation found “no Salem PD officer(s) observed any juvenile in physical possession of an alcoholic beverage,” and no portable breath tests were issued to anyone at the party. No vehicles were towed from the scene, the findings stated. Some partygoers were placed in a van to be charged, and others were released to parents. The juveniles were also not advised of their Miranda Rights before being asked to submit to a breath test after being taken to police headquarters, the Morin and Maverick report stated.

Morin and Maverick made 91-a right-to-know requests of the department for scanner audio and cell phone records.

Police arrived at the party around 11:10 p.m. after receiving two complaints, the report found. Nine minutes later, officers and a sergeant checked Stanwood Road to see if anyone fled the area.

During their investigation, Morin and Maverick discovered a woman in a Jeep near the party around 11:21 p.m. Information about the Jeep and its owner was redacted due to the Driver Privacy Act.

“The (officer) does not approach the vehicle or contact the driver, likely because he knew that the vehicle was registered to Samantha Smith, who is Deputy Chief Shane Smith's wife,” the Maverick report stated.

The report stated on Aug. 29, 2024, Maverick confirmed that the Jeep on the scanner audio belonged to the Smiths by seeing the vehicle at their home.

The Maverick Investigative Services report surmised it would have taken someone seven minutes to arrive at the scene from the Smiths’ home or about three minutes after the Jeep was seen if it had left at the same time as police fielded the noise complaint calls. Morin contacted Dolan on July 31 and Aug. 28, 2024, about the matter.

“I have reason to believe (a shift commander) attempted to call (Deputy Chief) Shane (Smith) right after that incident,” he wrote to Dolan. “Shane refused to answer the phone, but was nice enough to text back, ‘sleeping’.”

Municipal Resources interviewed several police staffers and also eyed the Maverick Investigative Services report.

During an interview with Morin, the investigator said he had no direct knowledge of a tip-off accusation and believed the rumor was circulated by those who attended the party. He told the investigator Dolan had conducted in-service training with the department, one of the reasons he contacted Dolan, and his concerns were addressed to his satisfaction.

Municipal Resources also traced some of the work performed by Maverick and found no time stamps on the scanner audio obtained by Morin. The audio was also “muted” to protect the registered owner’s “driver privacy,” the investigator said.

Information about the woman in the Jeep near the party was also redacted.

Several sections of the report were heavily redacted.

Smith was interviewed and admitted to knowing there would be a party at the Kattar’s since they played golf together a few days before, but he could not recall the exact date. The Municipal Resources investigator found out Smith often used his personal cell phone for work. Smith voluntarily released his phone records to cooperate with the investigation, the report said.

On the night in question, Smith’s first call was at 11:33 p.m. on June 28, 2024, and his last was 12:18 a.m. on June 29, 2024. Smith told the investigator, “he did not recall why he made” it at 11:33 p.m. or “what the conversation was during that call.” Another call, 11 minutes later, lasted two minutes, but information about the call was redacted. At 11:45 p.m., the shift commander texted Smith and requested a call. During that call, the commander reported a redacted person had been called in on the party incident.

Smith recalled saying, “Oh, I can imagine how this is going to look,” the report said, adding he had been scrutinized in the past by Morin.

Another call was reported at 11:49 p.m. and 12:18 a.m., but information about the calls, which were 12 lines in length, was redacted.

Smith did not recall having any conversations with Kattar about the party and definitely would not have offered to “deflect or cover for him” if there were problems, the report said Smith said.

The next three-and-a-half to four pages were redacted.

Morin, in an email Wednesday, said he never accused anyone of anything and reached out to Dolan to give him a heads-up about a rumor he heard, “which, if true, could be very serious.” He also contacted the town manager about the incident to loop him in, he said. Dolan, however, never contacted Morin, he said.

Morin said his investigation showed “no evidence that Shane Smith tipped off his kids, nor any evidence that Shane was tipped off by any officer,” but the investigation “did reveal several missteps by (the Salem Police Department) on how they handled the event, which led to all 16 criminal charges being dropped to a town ordinance violation or a non-criminal violation.”

Dolan also ordered a roll-call training session on the subject, which seems to acknowledge their missteps, he said.

Morin seemed more frustrated no one would investigate why Smith’s wife was nearby minutes after police were called to the party.

“What was indisputable was that Shane’s wife, Samantha, was at the top of Stanwood (Road) contemporaneously with the (police department) response to Hitching Post (Lane),” he said. “And that required explanation. Yes, Chief Dolan sent our investigation to the AG’s PIU and they declined to investigate. As a PI, I do not have subpoena power, nor do I have the ability to order a forensic extraction of a cell phone. Phone records will not show text messages between iPhones as that is through the Internet and the only way to recover is via forensic extraction.”

Morin also said Maverick did not contact any officer since the org was not hired to do a criminal investigation — they were hired by a defense attorney “to poke holes in a police report to assist in their defense.” He added, “Humbly or perhaps not, we knocked it out of the park.” Morin was also critical of the perception of Municipal Resources’ “unfounded” conclusion, saying they could not locate any evidence to support the allegation.

“The allegation from me was never that Shane tipped anyone off or that he was tipped off,” he said, “rather it was unlikely that he did not know after the fact, which has now been acknowledged that he did know. Shane had a duty to report and it is still unclear as to whether he did or not. He should have directed his wife to return his son to the party or taken (him) straight to the PD. We know that didn’t happen. Did he report it to Chief Dolan the next day? We have no idea, though if he did, why was exactly nothing done until their hand was forced?”

Morin, who is running for Salem town council, said the entire incident was “a dead issue” to him but the press release was “clearly an attempt to turn favor against me.” He added, he was trying to give Dolan information he may not have had at the time, and it was not an attack against police officers or the department.

“I will bleed blue until my final breath and will always love, support, and be loyal to SPD,” Morin said.

The full report can be read here.

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