Ossipee Select Board holds pre‑termination hearing for Officer Carrie Blackwood

The Ossipee Select Board on May 16 held a public pre‑termination hearing on a recommendation from the town police chief to terminate Officer Carrie Blackwood, who faces allegations including improper evidence handling, an unauthorized social‑media post and conduct during a mutual‑aid response to a Farmington case.

The hearing matters because it concerns a sworn officer’s fitness for duty, the town’s evidence controls and whether the board — as the appointing authority under RSA 41:48 cited at the hearing — will act on the chief’s recommendation. After presentations from Officer Blackwood, her attorney and the town’s representatives, the board recessed to nonpublic deliberation under the statutory exemption cited by the board.

During the public portion, attorney Mark Beaudoin, representing Officer Blackwood, outlined five categories of allegations the chief had listed in his recommendation: (1) Blackwood’s role in a Farmington mutual‑aid incident in which she traveled to Frisbie Memorial Hospital and briefly took custody of a subject; (2) a Snapchat photo that showed a blurred evidence room background; (3) a Facebook post and subsequent handling of comments on the department page; (4) an incident on Feb. 14 in which a small amount of marijuana that had been packaged for destruction was left on her desk; and (5) an incident on March 8 in which a small powdery substance (described in testimony as possibly heroin or fentanyl) was again packaged and later observed on her desk.

Beaudoin told the board the Farmington matter arose after dispatch broadcast a BOLO and that Blackwood, who said she knew the…