Author: WNTK News

George Caccavaro, the former mayor of Claremont, NH, was charged Monday with one count of sexual assault., reports the Union Leader.

The 78-year-old is being accused of sexually touching an 18-year-old, mostly non-verbal, special-needs student at Stevens High School where he recently worked as a paraprofessional. Caccavaro was working for the Newport, NH School District at the time of this charge, though the incident took place before his hiring.

Stevens High staff claimed to have seen Caccavaro kissing the student. Principal Pat Barry noted to police that “Caccavaro had been spending an inordinate amount of time with the alleged victim going back to the fall of 2018.” The alleged sexual touching occurred during an off-campus trip on February 5, 2019, and was reported by two adult witnesses.

The former Mayor was interviewed by Claremont Police Officers on October 9, 2019 and initially denied any sexual contact. Though he finally admitted stating that “he had lost control with the student while hugging her,” and that “I didn’t think of it as a sexual thing until now.”

According to a Facebook post from Newport’s Interim Superintendent Brendan Minnihan, Caccavaro turned himself into the Claremont Police Department on Monday afternoon, and was immediately placed on administrative leave. He then resigned from his position within the district.

Caccavaro is currently out on personal recognizance bail, has been ordered to stay 500 feet or further from the victim and her family, and is set to be arraigned on December 2.

The driver that killed seven motorcyclists in Randolph, NH on June 21, 2019, has been indicted on 16 charges, reports WMUR.

23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovsky was already facing seven counts of negligent homicide, but is now facing seven new counts of manslaughter and of Negligent Homicide-DUI, which are Class A Felonies. These charges are accompanied by Aggravated DWI and Reckless Conduct.

Zhukovsky could be facing hundreds of years in jail when he is arraigned on November 5, 2019.

The seven who died were members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, a group for New England Marines and their wives.

A fire in Weathersfield, VT has been deemed a total loss, reports the Department of Public Safety Fire and Explosion Unit.

In the early morning hours of October 17, 2019, the Weathersfield Fire Department was alerted to a fire at the residence of Jaime Brockett. Firefighters arrived on scene around 2 AM, and tried to fight the fire which was stretching from the residence’s breezway and into the garage. Backup was called for, and multiple local departments arrived on scene. Despite the fight, the household has been deemed a total loss.

Brockett was treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

According to the Argus-Champion, the Newport School District has found a large unassigned fund balance that will lower the school’s tax assessment.

The remaining funds equal $468.389 and are from the Financial Report for the school year that ended in June 2018. In Newport, $433,250 is equivalent to about $1 added to the tax rate, so these new findings will be used to drop property taxes in the town by about $1.

Completing this audit of the District’s finances was Business Administrator George Caccavaro.

The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office has released their Fugitive of the Week.

This week, authorities are on the hunt for 23-year-old Cody D. Rowan of Langdon, NH. He is described as being a white male, 6’5″, and approximately 265 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair.

Rowan’s original offense was Burglary, a class B felony. He plead guilty to this charge on March 12, 2018 and placed on probation. Police put a warrant out for his arrest following him missing a court date, thus violating the terms of his probation.

Anyone with information pertaining to his whereabouts are encouraged to call their local police station or the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.

A local man walked away from a plane crash Tuesday in Lebanon, NH, reports HereCast.

The man was piloting an antique plane, built in 1947, when it crash landed near Runway 25 at the Lebanon Municipal Airport. The plane sustained minor damage, but is mostly intact. Lebanon’s Crash Fire truck arrived at the scene. The runway was reopened minutes after the crash, and passenger service was uninterrupted.

The cause of the crash is currently unknown, and both the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.

A motor vehicle crash in Canaan, NH resulted in at least one death Monday, reports the Valley News.

The crash, involving two vehicles, occurred at approximately 11 AM on Route 118. Reports state that both vehicles had two passengers. One person has been pronounced dead, while another was transported to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center via DHART helicopter.

The crash shut down the roadway for more than four hours.

A large scale operation named Operation Western Alliance led to 25 arrests across Western New Hampshire on Thursday, October 10, 2019.

The operation was a joint effort between multiple local police departments, government organizations and task forces to “investigate and arrest individuals in New Hampshire distributing heroin, fentanyl, bath-salts and opioid-based narcotics.” Arrests ranged from people with outstanding warrants, to credit card fraud, up to possession of the above controlled substances.

Of the 25, the majority came from Claremont, Newport, and Charlestown, NH.

The press release states that several more arrests could be on their way, and that “fentanyl, methamphetamine, mushrooms, bath-salts, and marijuana were seized.”

A stolen truck has been located with resulting arrests, reports the Lebanon, NH Police Department.

On Wednesday, October 9, 2019, a Lebanon Police Officer spotted a truck that had been reported stolen from Vermont at Circle K. The officer approached the vehicle, and spoke to the three within. Two were arrested; 24-year-old Breanna Prime of White River Junction, VT and Matthew Adams, 35, of Windsor, VT.

Adams, the driver, was charged with Possession of Stolen Property, and after Possession of Controlled Drugs due to police finding heroin on his person. Prime was found to have a warrant out for her arrest.

The two were held at the Grafton County House of Corrections and were arraigned on October 10.

A routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a St. Johnsbury, VT man on several outstanding warrants, reports the Vermont State Police.

At approximately 7:30 on October 8, 2019, Sgt Ryan Wood of the Westminster State Police Barracks conducted a routine traffic stop on I-91 North in Westminster, VT. Upon investigation, it was found that the driver, 41-year-old Shawn Rich, had multiple outstanding warrants. Not only was Rich arrested on these, he was arrested for suspicion of DUI Drugs.

Rich’s vehicle was seized and he has been lodged at the Southern State Correctional Facility. He is set to appear in court on November 26.