Name: Wife files abuse complaint against Dover officer
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Wife files abuse complaint against Dover officer

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Jeff McMenemyView CommentsDOVER – The wife of a Dover police officer claims her husband assaulted her on several occasions during the past two years, threatened her and said he would take their two young children away from her.Sarah Letendre, 34, states in a domestic violence petition that her husband, R.J. Letendre’s “demeanor and threats during arguments have become increasingly aggressive.”“He regularly makes verbally abusive and derogatory statements to me, including in front of our children,” Sarah Letendre stated in the petition filed Tuesday in the Third Circuit Family Court in Ossipee. “He threatens to use his status as a police officer to arrest me. He threatens to kick me out of the house, saying that I don’t own the home so he can have the police remove me. He threatens emergency orders against me and to take our children away. Recently those threats are more frequent.”She detailed in court papers a number of times her husband allegedly assaulted her, dating back to January 2018.Rollinsford police arrested Sarah Letendre late last Friday night and charged her with domestic violence simple assault and other charges after she allegedly assaulted her husband. She was sought by police on additional charges this week and turned herself in Thursday and was released on personal recognizance.But Sarah Letendre and her family say R.J. Letendre, who is a former mixed martial arts fighter, was the aggressor during last weekend’s incident and fractured her ribs.They provided Sarah Letendre’s medical discharge papers to Foster’s Daily Democrat as Wednesday.The diagnosis states: “Closed fracture of multiple ribs of left side, initial encounter.” The document also states she was brought to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital for a “psychological evaluation.”In the domestic violence petition, Sarah Letendre details what she said happened at the couple’s Rollinsford home late Friday night.Sarah Letendre said an altercation started when she reached for her husband’s phone after they put their kids to bed Friday night, according to court papers. Her phone was in the car.“R.J. put me in a hold and dropped me to the ground. The left side of my head was dropped into a dog bowl. I tried to get free from his hold and he knelt hard on my sternum,” Sarah Letendre stated in court papers.Her husband then called 911 and she screamed out in pain and she “yelled for help from the operator,” Sarah Letendre said in court papers.She stated she continued to try to get free and at one point during the struggle, ripped his shirt and clawed at his chest, according to court papers.At one point, the Dover police officer got up as his wife continued lying on the floor, she said, according to court papers.“R.J. knelt down and then forcefully fell with his elbow into my left ribcage. I heard and felt a crack and cried out in pain. I struggled to breathe and then heard the voice of a man who must have come in through our door,” Sarah Letendre said in court papers. “It was a neighbor. He said, ’Sorry man, but you are going to jail.’ R.J. replied, ‘No I’m not, I’m an off-duty police officer.”Rollinsford Police Chief Robert Ducharme sent out a press release Monday asking for the public’s help in locating Sarah Letendre.Following her arrest last Friday and subsequent release, Rollinsford police stopped her vehicle early Saturday morning, alleging she violated a protective order for contacting her husband, they said.As an officer attempted to arrest her and remove her from the vehicle, she sped off, according to Ducharme.A warrant was obtained for Sarah Letendre on the following charges: reckless conduct, violation of a protective order, resisting arrest, disobeying a police officer and breach of bail conditions.On Thursday afternoon, Sarah Letendre turned herself in to Rollinsford police, according to her attorney Timothy Ayer.“The Strafford County Attorney’s Office, Rollinsford Police Department, and we were able to coordinate Sarah responding to the charges at the Rollinsford Police Department this afternoon. She was released on her personal recognizance,” Ayer said Thursday.“We are looking forward to arranging a way that we can help the (county attorney’s office) and Rollinsford police have the full picture of what occurred between Sarah and her husband.”He declined to comment further.Multiple attempts to reach R.J. Letendre for comment Thursday and throughout the week have been unsuccessful.In an emergency motion for sole child custody, which he was granted, R.J. Letendre states his wife “has been using drugs causing her to be physically and mentally unfit.”He stated in court papers that he fears his wife will take their kids “placing them in harm’s way.”Family Court Judge Robert Foley on Tuesday granted “temporary sole decision making and residential responsibility” for the couple’s two young children to R.J. Letendre.Attorney Michelle Wangerin, who also represents Sarah Letendre, declined to comment on the allegation her client used drugs.In a domestic violence petition R.J. Letendre filed against his wife, he states she assaulted him last Friday night.“During the assault, I attempted to call police (911) and she continued to assault me, preventing me from communicating with 911 dispatch,” he wrote in the petition. “I had to physically restrain her until police arrived on scene.”Judge Elizabeth Leonard issued a temporary domestic violence protection order against Sarah Letendre on Monday. The order states Sarah Letendre can’t contact her husband or come within 300 feet of him.Sarah Letendre was released on personal recognizance bail following her arrest last Friday.The conditions of her bail included she is have no contact with her husband and is not to use alcohol or narcotic drugs, according to a copy of the bail order.In her domestic violence petition, Sarah Letendre also detailed other times her husband allegedly assaulted her.After an argument on July 22, 2019 at their home, R.J. Letendre allegedly came up behind his wife, picked her up by her neck “and held me there looking at me,” she stated in court papers.“I couldn’t breathe. He then pushed me up against a display case and door frame hard and I fell to the ground,” she stated in court papers.She suffered a “large bruise” where she hit the display case, and ending up leaving the condo and sleeping in her Jeep because “I did not feel safe at home,” she stated in court papers.On July 8, 2019, the couple allegedly got into an argument at the home of Sarah Letendre’s mother, according to her claim in court papers.During the argument, he grabbed their son who Sarah Letendre was holding. She stood up and insisted he give their son back to her, she stated.But R.J. Letendre “grabbed my arm very hard and pushed me to the side,” causing her to fall on her mother’s coffee table, she stated in court papers.He left “fingerprint shaped bruises” on her arm where he grabbed her, Sarah Letendre stated.After an argument in May 2019, she tried to leave their home but R.J. Letendre “pushed me backward by the neck onto the bed,” she said in court papers.“He squeezed my neck and I couldn’t breathe. R.J. held me up like that for a few seconds before releasing his grip,” Sarah Letendre stated in court papers.In August 2018, she alleges her husband “got into a wrestling match that went South.”“R.J. pinned me to the floor and put me in a choke hold. I tried to tell R.J. that I can’t breathe but he didn’t let go,” she said in court papers. “I tried to scream and finally he let go. I sat on the floor crying and terrified.”In January 2018, Sarah Letendre claims her husband pushed the bathroom door into her during an argument, which knocked the wind out of her, according to the court papers.“I couldn’t pick up my son for over a week because of the injury,” she stated in court papers.In March, Sarah Letendre found “a second tracking device” on her Jeep. When she confronted her husband about it, “he admitted to using it,” she said in court papers.She stated she previously found a tracker on her Jeep in November, but her husband initially denied putting it there.But later he “admitted in couples therapy that he put the tracker on my car,” she states in court papers.She also claims that “more than four times” during December 2019, the Dover police officer allegedly told his wife to leave their home, she stated in court papers.“Each time he said he would call the police and have me removed,” she said in court papers. “Each time I left in my Jeep, parked in a public parking lot, and slept in my car without anywhere else to go.”Dover Police Chief William Breault declined to comment on the allegations Thursday.Instead he again referenced a statement the department put out earlier this week about the incident, according to Lt. Brant Dolleman, the department’s spokesperson.R.J. Letendre is on vacation this week and it was previously planned time off, Dolleman said Thursday.Breault previously announced in a prepared statement the department is into R.J. Letendre’s conduct.The department “will take action if it is determined that the officer violated departmental policies,” Breault said in the statement, also stating Rollinsford police are investigating the incident and it “will be reviewed by the Strafford County Attorney’s Office regarding any criminal conduct committed by those involved.”“The Dover Police Department is committed to making every effort to ensure that its employees are fit to provide top-quality professional law enforcement service to the community,” the statement reads. “An important part of that effort is the thorough, fair, and expeditious resolution of complaints received from the public.”Sarah Letendre has received an outpouring of support in social media from community members. Many people have posted #justiceforsarah on the Dover and Rollinsford police Facebook pages, and rallies in support of her are planned this weekend.If you need helpSeacoast Media Group provides the following information as a public service with no presumption of guilt or innocence in the case reported above:If you need support, Haven has trained confidential advocates available to aid those affected by domestic and sexual violence. The 24-hour hotline is (603) 994-SAFE (7233). You can also connect to Haven’s confidential, online chat service Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. by clicking the Chat Now button at .View Comments

Jeff McMenemyView CommentsDOVER – The wife of a Dover police officer claims her husband assaulted her on several occasions during the past two years, threatened her and said he would take their two young children away from her.Sarah Letendre, 34, states in a domestic violence petition that her husband, R.J. Letendre’s “demeanor and threats during arguments have become increasingly aggressive.”“He regularly makes verbally abusive and derogatory statements to me, including in front of our children,” Sarah Letendre stated in the petition filed Tuesday in the Third Circuit Family Court in...

Wife files abuse complaint against Dover officer

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