Three New Hampshire men face federal stalking charges for their campaign to intimidate two journalists with New Hampshire Public Radio, including throwing bricks through home windows and spraypainting threats on their property, the public radio station reported.
Tucker Cockerline, 32, of Salem, Michael Waselchuck, 35, of Seabrook, and Keenan Saniatan, 36, of Nashua, were captured on security camera approaching the door of one of the reporters, Lauren Chooljian, who lives in suburban Boston. Another video shows the person throwing a rock through the window of the home. Later, Chooljian returned home to find, “JUST THE BEGINNING” spray-painted in red on her house. Similar attacks happened at Chooljian’s parent’s home and at her editor Dan Barrick’s home.
The brain trust of Cockerline, Waselchuck and Saniatan, the last of whom is not yet in custody, were apparently upset about an investigation Chooljian did about sexual misconduct by the founder of an addiction treatment center that received a series of no-bid contracts from the state. Eric Spofford, a recovering addict who founded Granite Recovery Centers, denies any connection to the vandals and any wrongdoing in general. (If this were a Law & Order episode, it would turn out that the four were in a support group together, and Spofford helped the three out, so they owed him a favor.)