Former New Hampshire attorney general Peter Heed didn’t do anything criminal when he briefly touched a female social worker while dancing at a state-sponsored conference this spring, according to a report released yesterday. The Concord Monitor says Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway found that Heed’s touch was not assault because “the contact was on a dance floor – a sometimes socially ambiguous social environment.” The 20-page report is packed with details of the events that led to Heed’s abrupt resignation last month, including an alleged conspiracy to cover up a photo of Heed on the dance floor.
Heed resigned on June 15 after Gov. Craig Benson told him he was under investigation for inappropriate behavior at the conference on domestic and sexual violence. The bulk of the report centers on interviews with the woman Heed touched and her companions at the conference. It said the woman and others gathered at a hotel bar. When Heed arrived, he began to dance. At one point, he grabbed the hips of the woman and ran his hands up under her ribcage. The woman said she did not consider the incident an assault, but she reported it anyway, and Heed soon resigned.
Link: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040713/REPOSITORY/407130354/1031