Kink In Kingston
Kingston, NH is a small town, located on the Rt. 125 corridor, and has a population of just over 6,000. The Town has a “Selectmen” form of Government, with no Town Manager or Town Administrator, making the Board of Selectmen the hiring and firing authority for Town Employees.
The RobbiLeaks faithful are likely saying “Different Town, Same Story”. Sadly, there appears to be quite a bit of truth to that statement.
On April 4, 2023, Police Chief Joel Johnson, was visited at the Kingston Police Department by Selectman Kevin St. James. The purpose of the meeting was official Town Business, specifically to discuss Chief Johnson’s yearly performance review.
RobbiLeaks sources have confirmed that St. James was the Selectboard liaison to the Police Department and as part of those duties, St. James was responsible for Chief Johnson’s yearly review.
During this meeting on April 4, 2023, St. James initiated a conversation regarding an upcoming election in which St. James is a candidate. St. James questioned Chief Johnson why the Chief was “backing” another candidate and “how dare he do so.”
RobbiLeaks suspects the above conversation was extremely uncomfortable for Chief Johnson. Let’s forget for a moment that discussing politics is wildly inappropriate during the scope of a yearly review. Chief Johnson likely felt that his direct supervisor was suggesting that the Chief was not loyal to him. Chief Johnson surely had to measure his comments to ensure his comments didn’t negatively impact on his performance review.
During this same conversation, Chief Johnson expressed his concern that Selectman St. James was often unavailable to the Police Department. St. James responded to this concern by stating his unavailability is due to St. James having a full-time job and he is a busy man. What St. James said next is utterly unbelievable. The comment has been paraphrased by Attorney John Ventura, who represents Chief Johnson on this matter. The paraphrased quote reads that St. James asked Chief Johnson what he (St. James) was supposed to do, asking Chief Johnson if he wanted St. James to “perform oral sex upon the Chief.” (See #receipts)
RobbiLeaks will now translate. St. James said to Chief Johnson, “What am I supposed to do, you want me to suck your dick?”
Attorney Ventura’s letter also states this is not the first time that St. James made that exact comment to Chief Johnson. Atty. Ventura contends a similar conversation about St. James unavailability occurred just a few short months prior to April 4, 2023.
RobbiLeaks suspects oral sex from the boss is not part of the official benefits package offered by the Town of Kingston to its employees.
Some RobbiLeaks readers, especially those in Rockingham County, may recognize the name Kevin St. James. Yes, that is the very same Kevin St. James who once served as a County Commissioner. Why is that relevant, you may ask?
On September 30, 2020, Union Leader Correspondent, Jason Schreiber, published an article New probe to focus on county commissioner’s alleged ‘inappropriate’ messages to employee. (See #receipts).
Rockingham County did investigate the allegations. Legal Counsel for the County, Ransmeier & Spellman P.C., hired Atty Dona Feeney (Maggiotto, Friedman, Feeney & Fraas, PLLC) to conduct the investigation. RobbiLeaks has obtained a copy of that investigation, which concluded on November 6, 2020.
Atty. Feeney concluded the following:
“It is undisputed that Kevin St. James did send text messages that contained inappropriate and/or content of a sexual nature, to another county employee, Tiffany McCarthy, while they were both employed at the County, Mr. St. James, and Ms. McCarthy both stated that one or more of the texts were sexually inappropriate, and Ms. McCarthy stated that she found them offensive. Ms. McCarthy further stated that because Mr. St. James was her supervisor, she did not feel as though she could voice any complaints to anyone about the texts. However, Mr. St. James’ actions did not violate the County’s anti-sexual harassment policy because that policy did not apply to him as an elected official.
Although not violative of any applicable County policy, the texts sent by Mr. St. James arguably violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e, et seq.) and New Hampshire’s law against discrimination set forth in RSA 354-A. Both the federal and state statutes prohibit unwelcome comments, verbal and/or written exchanges of a sexual nature. Even though the law does not prohibit simple teasing, off hand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in adverse employment decisions.” (See #receipts)
RobbiLeaks sent a 91-a request to the Town of Kingston (See #receipts) at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. At 2:00 PM on the same date, RobbiLeaks received fully responsive documents to its request. Kudos to the Town of Kingston, this is not the norm, and the Department of Safety (Bob Quinn) could learn a thing or two from the Town of Kingston.
Contained in the responsive documents from the Town of Kingston is a letter dated April 17, 2023, to Kevin St. James from the other members of the Kingston Select Board. The letter states that the other members voted to remove St. James from being a liaison to any of the Town’s Departments. (See #receipts).
It appears the Select Board moved quickly to enforce consequences for this very serious behavior. You will see from the letter that St. James admitted to this meathead move, just as he did in 2020. The Select Board does not have the authority to remove a duly elected official from office. An elected official can only be removed from office by a Superior Court Judge.
RobbiLeaks suspects that Town Legal Counsel is doing the “lawyerly” thing and advising the Select Board to proceed with caution, as making light of the situation welcomes liability. Is that bad advice? It’s not bad advice, often defense attorneys are forced to try to make chicken soup with chicken shat.
To the Town of Kingston Select Board,
Direct Town Counsel to Atty. Dona Feeney’s findings from her investigation in 2020. Also ask counsel to research a 2016 case involving the Town of Salem and Stephen Campbell. RobbiLeaks may have had something to do with the removal of an elected official. Mr. Campbell opted to resign before a judge could remove him and accepted a 10-year ban. Funny what happens when the defendant is faced with personal liability because the Town declines to indemnify.
To Mr. St. James,
I suspect your luck has run out. Your best option, to avoid further scrutiny, embarrassment, and personal liability, is to resign and accept the 3-year ban that Attorney Ventura, on behalf of Chief Johnson, is requesting.
To the residents of Kingston,
Mr. St. James has yet to face any real consequences for his actions and it appears he continues the inappropriate course of conduct. I suspect if Mr. St. James were an employee of the Town, he would have already been sent packing. RobbiLeaks urges you to contact your elected officials to express your opinion.
