Fired principal, accused of faking a home invasion, given suspended sentence after mistrial
he case of a fired Manchester elementary school principal, accused of faking a burglary at her North End home in 2019, was settled earlier this year with her receiving a 30-day suspended sentence.
MANCHESTER, NH – The case of a fired Manchester elementary school principal, accused of faking a burglary at her North End home in 2019, was settled earlier this year with her receiving a 30-day suspended sentence.
Sarah Lynch, 42, pleaded guilty on March 9, 2022, in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District to a class A misdemeanor charge of obstructing government administration, according to court documents. She was given a 12-month suspended sentence and also received four days credit for pre-trial confinement.
Lynch also must obtain a mental health evaluation, with compliance, or continue mental health treatment, according to the sentenced meted out by Judge N. William Delker.
The plea came after a Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District jury in November 2021 deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of acquitting her. Delker said at one point in deliberations, the jury voted 8 to 4, also in favor of acquittal.
Originally, Lynch was charged with falsifying physical evidence and filing a false report to police. Police accused her of fabricating a story about a man breaking into her home and attacking her, and of staging the crime scene to appear as though a struggle had taken place.
Three days after the trial ended in a mistrial, prosecutors nol-prossed two of the charges. First Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Hawn P. Sweeney nol-prossed the remaining charges on April 27, 2022, citing “prosecutorial discretion,” according to court documents.
The incident happened at Lynch’s then North End home months after she was fired from her job as principal of Webster Elementary School. She was terminated for improper use of school funds and failure to follow the hiring protocol, according to court documents.
Prior to the case being tried, attorneys reached a settlement, but defense attorney Anthony Sculimbrene said at a court hearing the prosecution reneged on that agreement.
After the jury deadlocked, the case was the subject of criminal mediation, a program initiated by Judge Delker to try to settle cases instead of going to trial.
Lynch was accused of faking a burglary on Jan. 13, 2019, at her 102 North Adams St. home and calling 911 to report it, saying the intruder had attacked her.
Prosecutors maintained Lynch faked the incident. They said she used a baseball bat to break a window on the front door, then toppled furniture and scattered children’s toys in the living room to make it appear a struggle had taken place.
Police said video recordings obtained from neighbors recorded no one entering Lynch’s home. Footprints in the snow near her home belonged to someone unconnected to the incident, investigators said.
They also said a baseball bat, located in Lynch’s office next to a small shard of glass, had marks on it that matched markings on the door’s casing.
However, when lead investigator Scott Ardita was on the stand examining the bat he said the markings were no longer there, according to Sculimbrene. The bat, the attorney said, was in the possession of police since the day it was taken into evidence.
Sculimbrene said Ardita never physically examined the bat until the trial and instead had made an assessment of the marks by looking at photographs of the bat.
The defense pointed to flaws in the police investigation: Police didn’t dust for fingerprints; detectives only took three things into evidence – a bat, candle and computer cord; investigators did not take a swab of blood on Lynch’s cheek to test for DNA even though she had no cut on her face and had suggested it could be the intruder’s.
While investigators said there was no other tool found that could have broken a window, the defense pointed out that a photograph taken by police recorded a shovel and rake on the porch.