EARLIER THIS MONTH, former Cheshire County Attorney Peter W. Heed was sworn in as the state’s top prosecutor. For Heed, being named attorney general of New Hampshire meant his career had come full-circle: Fresh out of Cornell University Law School in 1975, he took his first job prosecuting homicide cases in the NH Attorney General’s Office, a "fascinating and challenging job" he held for five years before entering private practice.

Heed now returns to a much different AG’s Office, this time shouldering the responsibilities of making policy, overseeing the office’s 135-plus staff and managing the prosecution of cases, as well as attending to multiple other duties of the office. He took office as AG with some 650 active civil cases.

But the 52-year-old Heed, an athletic father of two teen-age boys who races canoes competitively, says he is up to the challenge. Bar News spoke to Heed, an affable, intelligent man who is excited about his return to the AG’s Office, about his early days in the office and his thoughts on the issues facing him as the state’s top prosecutor. This is part one of a two-part series based on conversations with Heed.

Q: How did you come to work in the NH Attorney General’s Office right out of law school?

A: After I graduated from Cornell Law in 1975, I determined that I really wanted to get into court – and figured prosecution was the way to go. I thought I’d have to go to a big prosecutor’s office, in Philadelphia or Manhattan or somewhere, but New Hampshire had an opening in its AG’s Office. The office was one of the few in the country that did direct criminal prosecution. A lot of states don’t get involved in prosecution unless a county can’t do it for some reason.

I received my undergrad degree at Dartmouth and loved New Hampshire. So this opportunity was an ideal combination of trial and homicide work and living in New Hampshire.

David Souter and Warren Rudman were the two men who interviewed me. I was thrilled to get the job…I remember that back in those days, there were fewer than 20 lawyers total – now we have 55 lawyers and a total staff of over 135. In the Criminal Division there were just four of us in a room with four metal desks. It was me, Rich McNamara, Tom Rath and Greg Smith. Little did we know it, but three out of these four would one day end up being AG, and Rich McNamara authored a treatise on criminal law, which became the bible for lawyers practicing criminal law in New Hampshire.

Q: Tell me about your experience prosecuting homicides for the NH AG’s Office. What was it like for a young attorney?

A: It was an exciting, vibrant time to be in that office. I worked with an extremely talented group of people on some fascinating cases. It was during the time that the statute was enacted establishing life without parole for first-degree murder cases. What a way to get started in your career! It was a fascinating time and a great learning experience.

Q: Can you share with me some of the highlights of those early days in the AG’s Office?

A: There were a substantial number of intriguing cases. With Ed Haffer, I prosecuted the first life without parole case. The Viktor Novosel case was one of the most significant cases involving the insanity defense in New Hampshire. We prosecuted Joseph Lister, who was responsible for a number of murders along the East Coast and had killed a NH Hospital worker. After he was caught, he escaped from prison in New York, then just before his trial here, he escaped again. The court allowed us to continue that case without him – it was the first case with an in absentia defendant. I convicted an empty chair! Lister was subsequently caught again and sentenced to life without parole and transferred to the federal system because of his track record of escape.

Then there was the case of Susan Piasecny, who was convicted of killing her father, who had earlier killed her mother, his ex-wife. He used an insanity defense and spent some time in the NH State Hospital. He eventually got out and was later found dead; his death was believed to be suicide, so he was buried. The medical examiners missed a very small bullet hole in his chest. Susan Piasecny asked that the body be exhumed because she felt it was not suicide. Then she kept dropping hints about his death. It turned out she was the one who had killed him, so there was an insanity element involved there, too.

You learn quickly prosecuting cases like those. You start off as second chair and learn by doing. It is the most intense and exciting experience to be involved with such cases as a young attorney. I learned from Tom Rath, Ed Haffer and others I worked with. We were all young, passionate and intense.

Q: Your whole career in the public sector has been dedicated to prosecuting cases. Why?

A: Trial work has always been my passion, and prosecuting is a very rewarding and satisfying side of criminal law. Building a case is very different from trying to unbuild it as a defense attorney. That’s the unique challenge of prosecution – building a case that will overcome the reasonable doubt hurdle in all 12 jurors’ minds and being ready to meet what the defense might throw at you.

Q: Why did you leave the AG’s Office in 1980 and go into private practice? Tell me about your career in private practice.

A: There were no intermediate steps at the AG’s Office at the time, so I decided to go into private practice. I was undecided about whether I was going to go to a larger or smaller firm. I ended up joining a Keene firm in which the senior partner was Eric Kromphold, whom I had met during a murder case I prosecuted and Eric defended. We hit it off well, even though we were at opposite ends of the spectrum….He had a very active trial practice with a couple of other good partners and I was brought in to work with him on litigation. I was with what later became Green, McMahon & Heed for 20 years.

Eric had a history of heart problems and died in 1983 at my wedding. He was supposed to marry us…hours later, after we had rushed him to the hospital in an ambulance and had come back, the wedding went on. But we never had a honeymoon because we were busy making funeral arrangements.

I spent the next 20 years in small-town practice, which had its own excitement and challenges and was often unpredictable.

Ours was a general practice, handling a broad range of cases. My role was as a litigator, both civil and criminal. I did a good deal of criminal defense. From that standpoint, I became much more empathetic with defendants and why they do what they do. Some defendants simply are mean and evil people, but most have emotional or severe substance abuse or other problems. They’re not bad people; they’ve just taken the wrong road at some point. As a defense attorney, I learned about those issues. I have some sensitivity to that now as I return to prosecution – in terms of sentencing.

One of the things I like about prosecution is the extent to which you must consider the greater good. You don’t have the tunnel vision of what’s good just for that client. The prosecutor has to make a recommendation for sentencing, which is often the sentence the judge imposes. The prosecutor has a big responsibility to society, the victim and the defendant to craft something that is a deterrent, but that will also rehabilitate the offender.

Q: You’ve only been on the job two days, but what do you see as the major issues or challenges facing you in your role as attorney general?

A: The challenges are huge here – there are the criminal prosecution and all the civil cases; representing all the state agencies; forming policy; advising the agencies on legal matters; dealing with suits on behalf of the state; white collar crime; consumer protection is a huge part of this job…environmental protection; Medicaid fraud. There’s also the public integrity division, which deals with the laws affecting public officials. They assure that if there are any allegations against a public official, there will be a fair investigation. There is a vast range of areas where the public needs protection.

Q: What was your reaction when you learned you were being considered for AG and when you found out you got the job? What was the process like?

A: I was surprised and honored. It wasn’t something I was seeking. I was the president of the County Attorneys Association and Gov. Benson sought our input on his search for a new AG. We recommended potential candidates and talked to him about issues and vision for the office. As a result of those discussions, he asked me if I would be interested in the job….I had not been active politically until becoming Cheshire County attorney in 2000…I was not a political "insider" in any way. I was not being actively pushed or considered at that point, but we made a connection.

Q: What are your thoughts on the independence of the attorney general, in light of initial comments by Gov. Benson about the AG’s being a member of the "team" who should get his input on prosecuting cases and other matters?

A: I made it clear to him from the beginning that if he had any thoughts that the governor could have control regarding criminal cases, public integrity, etc., that he needed to understand that was not the way it should be or was going to be if I were going to be AG. He said that his comments were taken out of context, that that was not what he’d meant.

This office will communicate with the governor. I pride myself in being a good communicator. We’ll work with him on civil issues, matters of policy.

Home | About the Bar | For Members | For the Public | Legal Links | Publications | Online Store
Lawyer Referral Service | Law-Related Education | NHBA•CLE | NHBA Insurance Agency | NHMCLE
Search | Calendar

New Hampshire Bar Association
2 Pillsbury Street, Suite 300, Concord NH 03301
phone: (603) 224-6942 fax: (603) 224-2910
email: NHBAinfo@nhbar.org
© NH Bar Association Disclaimer