Executive Councilor wants magistrate ousted for releasing suspect on PR bail in stabbing
Executive Councilor John Stephen is asking Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald to consider removing a recently appointed magistrate who released a man, charged with repeatedly stabbing another man, on personal recognizance bail.
MANCHESTER, NH – Executive Councilor John Stephen is asking Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald to consider removing a recently appointed magistrate who released a man, charged with repeatedly stabbing another man, on personal recognizance bail.
In a letter dated Feb. 11, 2025 to Magistrate Stephanie Johnson, Stephen expressed his “grave concern and profound disappointment regarding your decision on February 8, 2025 to release Kyle Bisson – a suspect charged in connection with a brutal February 7 stabbing in Manchester – on personal recognizance bail.”
The letter sent by Stephen, an attorney, carried the reference line: Failure to Uphold Public Safety in Bail Release of Violent Stabbing Suspect.
He wrote Johnson saying he was copying the letter to the Chief Justice to urge him to “give strong consideration to your removal as a Magistrate, pursuant to whatever mechanisms are available under RSA 491-B and the Supreme Court’s administrative authority. The gravity of allowing a potentially dangerous individual to walk free cannot be overstated – it is a fundamental failure to carry out the mission for which the magistrate position was created. “
Johnson’s decision to release Bisson on personal recognizance bail, Stephen wrote, “represents a stark departure from New Hampshire law and the duties imposed on you as a Magistrate, and it gravely undermines public safety.”
Stephen contends in his letter that the pre-trial bail law says a judicial officer “shall order that the person be detained pending trial” if it is determined by clear and convincing evidence that the individual’s release would endanger the safety of that person or the public. This requirement is not optional; it is a statutory command intended to prevent exactly what has occurred here – the return of a violent offender to the community where they pose a serious risk. As a duly appointed Magistrate (RSA 491-B), you are legally bound to uphold these bail standards.”
In Bisson’s case, Stephen said, the information presented at the bail hearing indicated an extreme risk to public safety, “triggering the very circumstances under which our law requires detention. Manchester Police detailed that the stabbing was unprovoked and savage – the victim was stabbed repeatedly (at least nine times) even as he attempted to flee (Man charged in Feb. 7 stabbing now out on bail, mayor calls for bail law ‘madness to end’ – Manchester Ink Link). Police prosecutors explicitly argued that this level of violence constituted clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Bisson would be a danger to others if released (Manchester Ink Link). They further noted Mr. Bisson’s recent criminal history, including a domestic violence-related conviction from October 2024 (Manchester Ink Link), illustrating a pattern of dangerous behavior.”
Failing to detain Bisson, Stephen said, constituted “not only a lapse in judgment” on Johnson’s part, but a failure by her to uphold her sworn duty as a judicial officer to protect the community.
Johnson was one of three magistrates appointed in December 2024 to a five-year term. She earned her JD from William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota in 2006 and then served as a prosecutor for 14 years. She then became an Assistant Attorney General in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the New Hampshire Department of Justice before joining Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts as a civil litigator in 2022.
