Court Documents: Manchester cop says wife made up abuse charges to ruin his career, get advantage in divorce

MANCHESTER, NH – A Manchester police officer, accused of assaulting his pregnant wife, says in court documents that his wife is intent on destroying his career, the same thing her mother did to her father.

Michael MacNeilly, 28, is charged with eight domestic-related offenses including six counts of simple assault taking place on multiple occasions; one charge of obstructing a report of a crime, and one count of criminal mischief.   The alleged assaults took place between Aug. 27 and Oct. 2, 2023, at their Ward Street home.

According to court records, MacNeilly is accused of slapping her in the face on Aug. 7, 2023; shoving her into a couch, sometime between Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, 2023; grabbing her chin on Sept. 27, 2023; hitting her in the mouth with a metal beverage bottle, bloodying her lip; pushing her head into a door on Sept, 27, 2023, and shoving her to the floor on Oct. 2, 2023.

The obstructing the report of a crime offense says that between Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, 2023, MacNeilly blocked her cellphone to prevent her from reporting any criminal offense to law enforcement or to prevent her requesting emergency medical attention.

The criminal mischief charges alleged he threw her cell phone against the wall causing between $100 and $1,500 in damage to it.

MacNeilly, who turned himself in to authorities on Tuesday, is now on paid administrative leave.  While New Hampshire State Police were conducting its investigation, because of the police department’s conflict, MacNeilly had been working in dispatch.

His wife obtained a domestic violence petition in Family Court, resulting in a restraining order preventing him from possessing firearms.  Police took his service weapon from him along with 16 guns stored in a safe at his home.

According to court records, the couple married on March 31, 2023 and separated on Oct. 17, 2023.  Their daughter was born in August 2023.  They are now divorcing.

In her domestic violence petition, Shannon MacNeilly said on Aug. 10, 2023, she was 37 weeks pregnant when MacNeilly slapped her in the face. On Aug. 30, 2023, she said MacNeilly, while holding their then 7-day-old infant daughter, threw a YETI aluminum water container from across the room and it hit her in the face. On Sept. 7, 2023, she said he shoved her so hard she fell onto the couch, “my C-section incision hurt and I asked to go to the Hospital and he said no, he took my keys, cell phone and laptop so I couldn’t call for help.”

On Oct 2, 2023, she said he pushed her down on the kitchen floor and threw her phone over the bassinet “that our baby was sleeping in, it hit the wall and broke.”

On Sept, 27, 2023, she alleged he, while holding the baby in one hand, grabbed her by her chin with his other hand and pushed her head hard into the front door.

On Oct. 17, 2023, the day the couple separated, she said he lunged at her with his hands up. “I became afraid for my life and the life of our baby,” she wrote.  “I screamed loud so that he wouldn’t hit me, the police came to the house and I asked for a restraining order.  The police said that Mike was going to leave for the night so the threat on me wasn’t elevated enough for an emergency restraining order.  Mike had displayed dangerous behavior while holding (the baby) and while she is sleeping.  Mike has also yelled as loud as possible in my face while holding (the baby).  Mike recorded my reaction to his verbal and physical abuse and laughed at me when he replayed the video,” she wrote.

She alleged that MacNeilly used his position as a police officer to “control the situation” and that he called a patrol officer and asked if anyone had called to report her yelling on Oct. 17, 2023.  She said that was when two supervisors arrived at their home

In court documents, MacNeilly said it was his wife’s own behavior and her extreme cruelty that led to the breakdown of the marriage.

He said she threatened to falsify allegations of domestic violence against him “as her own mother vindictively did to her father” to gain advantage in their divorce case and “to ruin his police career, and damage his relationship with his child.”

MacNeilly also said that his wife told him she hopes he is shot and killed in the line of police duty.

He alleged she would wake him up in the middle of the night, sometimes by pouring water on him, for the purpose of threatening and emotionally abusing him.  He said she would rouse and accost him with baseless accusations of infidelity, and threaten to prevent him access to his daughter, citing his alleged infidelity and the justification to do so.

MacNeilly said his wife would threaten to take their daughter and leave him while he was asleep.  He said she would tell him he didn’t “deserve to sleep” because she believed he was cheating on her.  According to MacNeilly, she vindictively threatened to have sex with his friends and coworkers.

He also alleged that she isolated him from his family and friends and refused to attend family and social engagements.

He said her verbal harassment, physical abuse, and emotional manipulation has caused him extreme mental distress and physical effects.

“Shannon’s conduct in their seven-month marriage has caused Michael the highest levels of stress he has experienced in his lifetime, exceeding his experiences of combat in Afghanistan and patrolling the streets of Manchester,’ his attorney James P. O’Rourke Jr. wrote.

Police work, he said in court documents, is a highly stressful profession.  “Shannon’s treatment of Michael cause him to view his time at work on police patrol as a reprieve to his life at home with Shannon,” wrote his attorney.   “Michael had no environment or time for meaningful rest and decompression, instead always on alert, in fight or flight mode.”

All defendants in criminal cases are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and due process of the law.