May 31 (UPI) — The former leader of two rehab centers faces federal charges in the alleged harassment of New Hampshire Public Radio journalists in retaliation for an unfavorable news story about alleged sexual misconduct.
Eric Spofford, 40, was arrested Friday after being indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and using a facility of interstate commerce; one count of stalking using a facility of interstate commerce; and two counts of stalking through interstate travel, the Departmentof Justice announced.
Each count is punishable by up to five years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Spofford is the founder and former chief executive officer of the for-profit Granite Recovery Centers in Salem, N.H., and Miami.
He has an arraignment hearing scheduled at 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday at the federal courthouse in Boston.
GRC is one of the largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in New England, and Spofford sold it in 2021 for $115 million, The New York Times reported.
Many abuses detailed
NHPR on March 22, 2022, published an online article that discussed allegations of sexual misconduct, abusive leadership and retaliation by Spofford.
He allegedly harassed former patients and staff, and was accused of sexually assaulting at least two staff members.
One former patient said he sent her unwanted text messages and at least one photo of an obscene nature, which she said caused her to suffer a relapse.
Several staffers and a former chief operating officer left GRC due to the alleged behavior by Spofford, according to the article.
He denied the allegations, but the article gained a lot of attention locally and nationally, according to the DOJ.
He sued the public radio station for defamation, but a judge dismissed the case in 2023.
A scheme to ‘harass and terrorize’
From March 2022 through at least May 2022, Spofford allegedly “devised a scheme to harass and terrorize the journalist who authored the article, the journalist’s immediate family members [and] a senior editor at NHPR,” the DOJ said.
Federal prosecutors say he paid a close friend, Eric Labarge, $20,000 to undertake the scheme and provided him with names, addresses and instructions on how to stalk and harass the intended victims.
Labarge enlisted the help of three others to stalk and harass the victims, all of whom were charged and convicted of crimes related to the scheme, DOJ said.
Labarge, Tucker Cockerline, Keenan Saniatan and Michael Waselchuk last year were sentenced to between 21 months and 46 months in prison.