MANCHESTER, NH – The estranged wife of a Manchester Police Officer broke down in tears Friday when a defense attorney stood about eight feet away from her, a water pitcher in hand, to demonstrate the distance from which she said her husband threw a beverage container at her, hitting her in the face.
“I’m not going to throw it at you,” Defense Attoreny Eric Wilson assured her. Still, Shannon MacNeilly’s reaction was to burst into tears, resulting in an immediate recess.
It was the second day that Mrs. MacNeilly has taken the stand in 9th Circuit Court – District Division – Manchester to testify about alleged abuse from her husband, Officer Michael MacNeilly. She testified about six weeks ago for 2 ½ hours under direct examination. On Friday, she was on the stand for another 4 ½ hours, with the majority under cross-examination from Wilson.
Prior to her breaking down in tears, Wilson had shown her a photograph of herself taken about the time she said her husband had thrown a 64-ounce Yeti bottle at her, hitting her in the mouth.
Mrs. MacNeilly, who maintained the incident resulted in her suffering a swollen lip, agreed that the black and white photograph – and the same photograph, but in color, she was shown later – did not show her with an injury to or a mark on her lip. She told Wilson that the swelling was on the inside of her mouth.
In questioning her, Wilson attempted to portray her as a jealous woman who used the abuse allegations to gain an advantage in divorce proceedings, gain sole custody of their infant daughter and to ruin her husband’s career.
Wilson said MacNeilly maintains the allegations are fabrication.
She previously testified to her husband slapping her in the face “on or about” Aug. 7, 2023, after she confronted him about a woman and an Instagram post; him shoving her into a couch, sometime between Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, 2023; MacNeilly grabbing her chin and pushing her head into a door on Sept. 27, 2023; hitting her in the mouth with a metal beverage bottle, bloodying her lip; and shoving her to the floor on Oct. 2, 2023. He also is accused of criminal mischief for damaging her cell phone when he threw it against a wall, and obstructing the report of a crime for blocking her cellphone to prevent her from reporting any criminal offense to law enforcement or request emergency medical attention.
Under Wilson’s questioning, Shannon MacNeilly said, prior to their marriage, her husband had been untruthful with her, had cheated on her and as a result she had trust issues with him. She said she was concerned he was still getting messages from a woman while he “had a pregnant wife.”
The day he slapped her, she went through his phone and discovered that he still had messages on it from that woman. She said he was not receiving messages from her, but he still had them on his phone and was checking them.
Last month when she testified, she said MacNeilly was in the shower when she confronted him about the messages. She said he slapped her with his right hand, which would result in him hitting the left side of her face. However, she touched the right side of her face when testifying. Wilson questioned her Friday about which side of the face was hit.
“It happened so quickly,” she said. “If I got my left and right mixed up it doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.”
He also questioned when the events happened. He said in August she testified the slap was the first incident, the push on the couch – which Mrs. MacNeilly said irritated her C-section — was second, and the tossed water bottle, third. But, on Friday she said the the slap was first, the tossed bottle, second, and the push third.
Detective Sgt. Andrew Sheffer of the NH State Police Major Crimes Unit was the lead investigator in the case.
Under direct examination by Attorney John Gasaway, prosecutor for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, Sheffer cleared up the matter. Mrs. MacNeilly said she was unclear on the exact dates the incidents happened. Sheffer said ultimately the investigation determined the couch incident took place sometime between Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, 2023, while the Yeti bottle incident occurred sometime between Aug. 27 and Sept. 11. He said Mrs. MacNeilly’s version did not change but that the two incidents overlapped.
MacNeilly also video recorded several of their arguments which Wilson played on a laptop for Mrs. MacNeilly to view. She could be heard calling her husband a faggot and a loser, saying she would fight “tooth and nail” for custody of their daughter and making other harsh comments laced with profanities.
She said she was ashamed of making those comments and said they are no reflection on who she is.
The state rested its case after Sheffer’s testimony. Initially, Wilson called his client to the stand but then decided, it being late in the day, to call his mother as a witness.
In August, Mrs. MacNeilly testified her mother-in-law, Joy MacNeilly of Goffstown, came to their home 20 minutes after her son had shoved her onto the couch. She said she told her what had happened and her mother-in-law told her, “My son would never do anything like that.”
Joy MacNeilly, the last witness on Friday, denied her daughter-in-law ever told her that.
MacNeilly is charged with six counts of simple assault that happened in their Ward Street home. Mrs. MacNeilly now resides there with their daughter, she said
MacNeilly was arrested in April after turning himself in to authorities and was placed on paid administrative leave. While New Hampshire State Police were conducting its investigation, MacNeilly worked in dispatch.
His wife obtained a domestic violence petition in Family Court, resulting in a restraining order preventing him from possessing firearms. Police took his service weapon from him along with 16 guns stored in a safe at his home.
The MacNeillys met in October 2022, married on March 31, 2023 and separated on Oct. 17, 2023.
At the time of the alleged abuse, Shannon MacNeilly did not file any police reports. On Oct. 17, 2023, she and her husband had argued and she screamed when he came towards her. MacNeilly allegedly called the police station and talked to a fellow officer to find out if anyone had reported an incident at their home.
Twenty minutes later, two police sergeants arrived on scene to find out what was happening. MacNeilly testified she told the supervising officers that her husband had not assaulted her that day but he had hit her in the past. That resulted in a police investigation which Manchester police later handed off to state police who brought the criminal charges.
She sought a restraining order in Family Court where she filed a domestic violence petition. In it, MacNeilly said on Aug. 10, 2023, she was 37 weeks pregnant when MacNeilly slapped her in the face. On Aug. 30, 2023, she said MacNeilly, while holding their then 7-day-old infant daughter, threw a YETI aluminum water container from across the room and it hit her in the face. On Sept. 7, 2023, she said he shoved her so hard she fell onto the couch, “my C-section incision hurt and I asked to go to the Hospital and he said no, he took my keys, cell phone and laptop so I couldn’t call for help.”
On Sept, 27, 2023, she alleged he, while holding the baby in one hand, grabbed her by her chin with his other hand and pushed her head hard into the front door.
On Oct 2, 2023, she said he pushed her down on the kitchen floor and threw her phone over the bassinet “that our baby was sleeping in, it hit the wall and broke.”
In court documents, MacNeilly said it was his wife’s extreme cruelty that led to the breakdown of the marriage.
He said she threatened to falsify allegations of domestic violence against him “as her own mother vindictively did to her father” to gain advantage in their divorce case and “to ruin his police career, and damage his relationship with his child.”
MacNeilly also said that his wife told him she hopes he is shot and killed in the line of police duty.
He alleged she would wake him up in the middle of the night, sometimes by pouring water on him, for the purpose of threatening and emotionally abusing him. He said she would rouse and accost him with baseless accusations of infidelity, and threaten to prevent him access to his daughter, citing his alleged infidelity and the justification to do so.
MacNeilly said his wife would threaten to take their daughter and leave him while he was asleep. He said she would tell him he didn’t “deserve to sleep” because she believed he was cheating on her. According to MacNeilly, she vindictively threatened to have sex with his friends and coworkers.
He also alleged that she isolated him from his family and friends and refused to attend family and social engagements.
He said her verbal harassment, physical abuse, and emotional manipulation has caused him extreme mental distress and physical effects.
“Shannon’s conduct in their seven-month marriage has caused Michael the highest levels of stress he has experienced in his lifetime, exceeding his experiences of combat in Afghanistan and patrolling the streets of Manchester,’ his then attorney James P. O’Rourke Jr. wrote.
The trial was continued to the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2024.
