Former NH police officer charged with racially motivated assault

To establish a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the office says it must show that the person interfered with the victim’s right to engage in lawful activities by threatening to use or actually using physical force or violence against the victim based on “race.” , color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or disability,” according to state law.

Goodwin pleaded guilty to the crime simple assault charge last month after meeting with a man identified by the attorney general’s office as “MD” and given probation. The man came forward last November and introduced himself as Mamadou Dembele.

“We are very surprised to see this complaint from the attorney general’s office because there are no comments that can be attributed to Aaron Goodwin that are racist in any way, shape or form,” his attorney, John Durkin, said in a phone call in Wednesday

He said Goodwin reacted the way he did because he felt his safety and the safety of his relatives were threatened. “It had nothing to do with race,” he said.

Goodwin, of Eliot, Maine, and his relatives from Maryland first met Dembele at a diner where they were all waiting to pick up their food.

The daughter-in-law asked where he was from, and he answered: Africa. The brother then called him a “moron,” saying that Africa was a continent, not a country, according to the complaint.

Goodwin then told Dembele, who was in the cigar bar, what he smelled like, the complaint said. Dembele offered him a cigar in response. Goodwin’s brother asked Goodwin why he was talking to “that (expletive) moron” and said the man was too poor to afford a good cigar, the complaint said. The brother then made a drug-related comment about a cigar and black people, the complaint said.

Eventually, Goodwin and his relatives left. When Dembele left, he was confronted by the three in the car park, after which his brother, Kevin Goodwin, told him to leave. Dembele asked Kevin Goodwin what his problem was and it led to a confrontation. At one point, Aaron Goodwin knocked Dembele to the ground, the complaint said.

The attorney general’s office filed a separate civil rights complaint against Kevin Goodwin, accusing him of calling Dembele a racial slur and shoving another unidentified black man who was outside the diner and tried to intervene. The daughter-in-law, Shannon Goodwin, is accused in a separate complaint of calling the man racial slurs and punching him in the chest and face.

The attorney general’s office is asking a judge to issue a preliminary restraining order to “protect victims and the public from the Goodwins.” He is also asking for $5,000 each against Aaron and Kevin Goodwin and $10,000 against Shannon Goodwin.

Kevin Goodwin pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August and paid more than $600 in fines; the prosecutor’s office dropped the charge of simple assault against him. Shannon Goodwin’s case remains open. State police issued a warrant for her earlier this year on three misdemeanor counts of simple assault and disorderly conduct.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment for Kevin Goodwin and his attorney, as well as a number listed for Shannon Goodwin.

Last week, Dembele filed a separate lawsuit against Aaron Goodwin in federal court, accusing him of negligence, battery and assault. The lawsuit says Dembele suffered a concussion, a ruptured left Achilles tendon that required surgery, and “other physical and psychological injuries.”

Durkin said Aaron Goodwin has not yet been served with a lawsuit or complaint with the attorney general’s office.

Aaron Goodwin was fired from the Portsmouth Police Department in 2015 after a judge-led panel investigating a $2.7 million inheritance dispute found he violated the police department’s code of ethics and job description.

The commission concluded that Goodwin should have refused the elderly woman’s offer to leave him her estate and should have notified the managers of the offer. A judge disinherited Goodwin, saying the officer was “self-serving” when he befriended a woman in her 90s who suffered from dementia.