MANCHESTER, NH – The trial of a former elementary school principal accused of falsely reporting a burglary and faking a crime scene, opened Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District.
Sarah Lynch, 42, formerly of 102 North Adams St., is on trial on one count each of falsifying physical evidence and false report to law enforcement.
Lynch, a former Webster Elementary School Principal, is accused of creating a false crime scene on Jan. 13, 2019, in her North Adams Street home to deceive Manchester police.
First Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Shawn Sweeney, in his opening statement, using a wide-screen monitor, showed jurors a photograph of overturned furniture and scattered children’s toys in the living room of Lynch’s former home, describing it as a “staged crime scene.”
He held up an item, wrapped in paper similar to that used in grocery stores to wrap fresh fish or steaks, and told them it was a bat. The marks on that bat, he said they will learn, match marks on the door where a glass pane was shattered.
Lynch called 911 about 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 23, 2019, to report a burglary. When officers arrived, the glass was broken in the front door of her home and Lynch was sitting on the floor, her hands shaking and with a distraught look on her face. She said she was in her office, heard a shattering and came out to encounter an intruder.
The man came up behind her and put a cord around her neck, she told police. She grabbed a candle, hit him in the head with it and he fled.
Sweeney said Lynch described to police officers a five to 15-minute “struggle for her life.” Police maintain the crime scene doesn’t support that. Sweeney said if jurors look at the details in the photograph, they will see items not scratched or touched at all.
Lynch, he said, gave police several different yet similar statements, with two or three things different each time.
Sweeney said her medical records call her injuries – a scratch on her face and redness around her neck – “unremarkable.”
Surveillance video police obtained around the time of the incident recorded only a woman pushing a baby carriage and a man walking, and no one breaking into Lynch’s home. There was about six inches of snow on the ground, Sweeney said, and the only footprints were those of someone with no involvement with a burglary.
He said he couldn’t explain a motive for why someone would do something like this, but he told jurors to remember the story of the boy who cried wolf and why he did it.
The boy who cried wolf is the story of a young shepherd who is bored and, for fun, decides to yell to the farmers that a wolf has come to eat the sheep. He does this several times but when a wolf really shows up and he cries for help, no one comes to help because he has cried wolf too many times.
Defense attorney Leslie Gill said police can’t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt because they didn’t do a complete investigation.
She said investigators moved to quickly close the case and were “sloppy” in investigating it. Officers, she said, disturbed the crime scene and failed to pursue two potential leads. They didn’t dust for fingerprints, even though Lynch told them her assailant didn’t wear gloves, and they didn’t try to find the driver of a royal blue Subaru who, around the time of the incident, was reported driving at about 60 mph near Campbell and Union streets.
Gill told the jurors that on the morning of Jan. 23, 2019, Lynch was in her first-floor office when she heard shattering of glass and came face-to-face with an intruder. The two struggled for two minutes, although it seemed much longer, and after Lynch hit him in the head with a candle and he fled, she called 911.
When an officer arrived, he found Lynch on the living room floor, hands shaking and with a worried expression her face. Her neck was red. He took a quick statement from her and she described the intruder – a white man wearing a hoodie with no gloves.
Lynch was taken by ambulance to the Elliot Hospital for treatment of a head injury, abrasions, and a ligature mark on her neck.
Investigators, she said, took only three items as evidence: the cord, a candle and a bat.
Gill said what jurors won’t hear is an expert saying the markings on the bat match those on the door. They won’t hear of any attempt by investigators to locate DNA or to match fingerprints because no evidence was collected to do that.
“What you will hear is speculation from police officers,” she said.
Gill said Lynch cooperated with police in the investigation, gave permission for them to see her medical records and allowed them to take photographs of her injuries.
The last time she spoke with police, which she thought was to help identify a suspect, she was instead interrogated. Police, Gill said, lied to her to try to get her to confess. They lied and said there was a witness who contradicted her and they lied and said there was glass on the bat. Lynch continued to say she was burglarized.
The detectives continued to pressure her, to gaslight her, so that Lynch “started to question her sanity.”
Gill maintained that at the end of the case, the jurors will have lots of doubts that will lead to them finding Lynch not guilty.
“Sarah had nothing to gain by staging a burglary,” she said.
Fourteen people were selected for the jury with two later to be designated alternates. However, on Monday, one juror was excused when he informed the court that over the weekend his son was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Delker initially planned on allowing the juror, who is fully vaccinated, to continue to serve, which he was willing to do, and implement CDC protocols. However, defense attorney Tony Sculimbrene voiced concern. He told the judge his wife is immuno-compromised and that his office has followed strict protocols, including not allowing visitors for the past year.
As a result, Delker called the unnamed juror back into the courtroom, told him that he was erring on the side of caution and was dismissing him from the jury.
“Good luck,” Delker said. “Thank you so much. Thank you for coming in.”
Discussion of the juror’s situation was held out of earshot of the remaining jurors who, on entering the courtroom, were not told why the juror was dismissed.
Lynch was terminated as principal of Webster Elementary School in late 2018 for improper use of school funds and failure to follow the hiring protocol, according to court documents.