There is more legal fallout to the criminal case against a group of men who harassed and stalked a team of New Hampshire Public Radio journalists and their family members over The 13th Step podcast.
Eric Labarge, 46, was sentenced to 46 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. The Nashua, NH resident was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and pay restitution of $34,139 to the victims by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani. Labarge pleaded guilty in July to five criminal counts, including multiple charges of stalking.
It is the latest sentencing for a group of men who allegedly harassed the NHPR reporters. Labarge was arrested and charged in September 2023 along with co-conspirators Tucker Cockerline, Michael Waselchuck and Keenan Saniatan.
“Eric Labarge will now pay a hefty price for being the vindictive ringleader of an elaborate harassment campaign that inflicted significant emotional harm, stress, and fear on New Hampshire Public Radio employees and their family members who were simply just doing their jobs,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “Let today’s sentence be a warning: anyone attempting to infringe on the freedom of the press — a constitutionally protected right — will not get away with it.”
Cockerline and Waselchuck were sentenced earlier this year, receiving prison sentences of 27 months and 21 months, respectively. Each sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. Saniatan has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 6.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the harassment and intimidation of NHPR journalists included the vandalism — on five separate occasions — of the victims’ homes and the home of one of the victims’ parents.
After a year-long investigation, the FBI determined that the men began harassing New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Lauren Chooljian, her parents, and her editor, Dan Barrick, after Chooljian first published an article on the public radio broadcaster’s website in March 2022. The harassment included vandalizing the victims’ homes with bricks and large rocks, as well as spray-painting a derogatory word and threatening language on the homes’ exteriors in red. That included throwing a brick through a window of Chooljian’s Massachusetts house along with the phrase “just the beginning” spray-painted in large red letters across the front of the home. In all there were five incidents.
The incident was sparked by Chooljian’s reporting on alleged sexual misconduct at Granite Recovery Centers, a drug treatment center in the state. It included more than $3 million in no-bid contracts that were directed by the state to the center. Granite Recovery Centers founder Eric Spofford has denied the allegations, and last year he sued New Hampshire Public Radio for defamation. The case was dismissed after a New Hampshire judge ruled that the suit lacked evidence.
Undeterred by legal threats, New Hampshire Public Radio released The 13th Step podcast last year and the awards quickly followed. The series was honored as a finalist for a Pulitzer. The jury called the podcast a “gripping and extensively reported investigation of corruption and sexual abuse within the lucrative recovery industry that sought accountability despite legal pressure.”
Labarge “deeply regrets” what he did, according to a sentencing memo from his attorney, who also refers to his past “demons of drug abuse, mental illness, and an extraordinarily difficult childhood and early adult life.” But VPR reports the sentence handed down was stiffer than what was proposed to the judge.
U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy says the “terror campaign” against the NHPR reporters and their families “sent ripples of fear” throughout the journalism community.
“Mr. Labarge was the ringleader of a targeted terror campaign that caused the victims — journalists exercising the First Amendment rights and the families — incredible fear and emotional harm,” Levy says in a statement. “Our office remains steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding the rights of journalists to report without fear of retribution and to put behind bars those who try to silence the media through threats and violence.”
The Radio Television Digital News Association released a report in August showing 2.2% of radio news directors and general managers reported attacks on newsroom employees in the past year.