The 13th Step - Update: Vandalism Arrests

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Federal prosecutors have charged three men for their alleged roles in the vandalism incidents. According to the feds, the vandalism was "solicited" by a "close, personal associate" of Eric Spofford's. Reporter Jason Moon goes to the arraignment at a Boston courthouse and tells Lauren what happened.

Can you hear me? Okay, I hear you. Alright, I'm rolling now. Okay, I'm dying. Tell me everything. Are you rolling? Yeah, I've been rolling. Oh, yeah, of course, sorry. I literally am dying. You're listening to the 13th tab.

I'm Lauren Chuljian. And we are unexpectedly back with a new episode. It's been just over two weeks since we published the podcast, but now I have some major news to share. It's about the vandalism. You probably remember, after I put out my first story about Eric's pofford, there were two rounds of vandalism. First in April, 2022, my parents, my news director, and a house I used to live in were all targeted. The seaword,

spray painted on doors, rocks or bricks thrown through windows. And then a month later, my house was hit. Just the beginning was spray painted on my house, a brick thrown through my living room window, and my parents' house was hit again. Well, more than a year later, I'm here to tell you, arrests have been made. Federal prosecutors have charged three men for their alleged roles in the vandalism. On Friday, June 16, two of these guys were arrested. The third is still at large.

As one of the victims of the crime here, I got a heads up that this was happening. I was told that two men would be arraigned in front of a federal judge in Boston at the Mokley Federal Courthouse. But since the podcast came out, I've been in Chicago for safety reasons. Our security consultant suggested I get out of town. So my colleague Jason Moon drove down to Boston and after the hearing Jason called me to tell me what happened. All right, so the defences are brought in, Tucker, Cockerline and Michael Wastelchuk.

What did they look like? What were they wearing? Yeah, I mean, I have to tell you, Lauren, seeing them come in the courtroom, I felt sad. I felt sad. Yeah. Tucker, Cawker, along, he was dressed in basketball shorts and a black t-shirt.

He had to look about him of somebody who's living a rough life. He had long brown hair, was like kind of messy and matted. It was like tied up in that kind of loose bun. He had tattoos on his arms and the back of his hands. Michael Wasselchuk, he looked a little more clean cut. He was wearing black sweat pants and a red T-shirt. He had like more like a closed cropped short brown hair. I didn't see any tattoos

looked a little younger, but it became clear like during the hearing that Wasle Chuck is in active addiction and because of his arrest is experiencing in withdrawal. Yeah. So there was like a sidebar discussion between the attorneys and the judge where they like turned on the white noise machine so we couldn't hear but you know the judge said it was it had you know had to do with you know a medical issue concerning wasle chuck and his substance use. And at the end of the hearing, basically,

in his order would direct whichever jail he ends up at to take that into consideration and see if he needs treatment. But yeah, it seems pretty certain that he's like, you know, actively withdrawing, like as we speak, which is, is that. God, that's awful. And yeah, I mean, they both sat down. They, you know, they each were appointed their own attorney.

They were both found indigent, so they can't afford an attorney. So one was appointed a federal public defender. One was got a court appointed private attorney and I could you know just pick up a little bit of what they were You know, this is like the first time they're meeting their attorneys and so Carcola was was concerned about Getting a call out to his girlfriend to hold some stuff

Yeah, you know just like like the kind of basic logistics of what happens when you get arrested and your life is kind of upended. Yeah. The kind of, yeah, the mundane of it was coming through in that moment. Tucker Cockerline and Michael Wasselchuk are the ones who Jason saw in court. The third is Keenan Saniatin, he's still on the lamb. All three live in New Hampshire, and they're all being charged with conspiracy to commit

interstate stalking. My house is in Massachusetts. But federal investigators believe they did not act alone. In the criminal complaint, the FBI lays out evidence of a conspiracy to intimidate and harass me and my news director, Dan Barich, in retaliation for publishing the original story about Eric Spofford. They say, Cockerline, Wastelchock, and

Sonny Atten were solicited to carry out the vandalism by a person the feds call subject two. Subject two, the feds right, is a close personal associate of subject one. And subject one is Eric's Bofford. We've posted the full complaint on our website if you want to read it, but in short, it appears the FBI left no stone unturned. Agents were able to track down these guys' phone records, and they show that Cockerline and Saniyatin were in frequent communication with Subject 2 before and after each incident of vandalism. Their phone records also show that Eric Spoffert and Subject 2 called each other around the time of the vandalism,

though it doesn't make clear whether or not Eric Spoffert knew about the vandalism. Federal agents also obtained data from Google, and they found that Cockerline and Saniyatin used Google to find the street addresses of all four of the homes that were vandalized. Some of those searches were done within hours or even minutes of the vandalism. And then the FBI used cell phone data for location tracking. For example, Cockerline's cell phone places him in Hanover, New Hampshire right around the time that my old house was

vandalized in April of 2022. And Wastelcheck's cell phone puts him right at my house at 5.50am. The moment my security cameras show a man throwing a brick through my window. Speaking of my security cameras, FBI agents were able to match that footage, which shows a man wearing a blue raincoat and a backpack, with a photo of Wasselchuk at an ATM, wearing what looks to be the same coat and the same backpack. And one last thing. The FBI also dug up some interesting financial records. On May 20, 2022, Cockerline bought two bricks at a home depot on the border of New Hampshire

and Massachusetts. Just hours before my house and my parents' home were vandalized. My colleague Jason says, Cockerline and Wastelchuck were told at their arrangement that the maximum sentence for conspiracy to commit interstate stalking is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Jason told me the hearing was short, no more than 20 minutes. So then it just wrapped and they took them away? Yeah and I forgot to mention when they came in they were both handcuffed. You actually heard the jangling of the chains on the handcuffs before you could see them when they were being led into the room.

They were handcuffed to sit at the table with their attorneys, the marshals, you know, were like sitting in the front bench, like just a few feet behind them. And then when they, yeah, at the end of the hearing, they were cuffed again and let away. A few hours after the hearing, the Department of Justice sent out a press release. I got to peak at it before it went public. They do this as a courtesy for the victims. And I was struck by how the DOJ was clearly trying to use these arrests to send a message. Here's a bit of the statement from Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy. The Department of Justice will not tolerate harassment or intimidation of journalists. If you engage in this type of vicious and vindictive behavior, you will be held accountable.

As for how I feel about all this, to be honest, I'm still processing it. I'm in a weird spot. I'm the journalist that wrote this story, but I'm also the person who the feds refer to as victim one. It's a lot. But there will be time for me to gather my feelings and share them, because I'm told that this investigation is ongoing. And if anything major happens, I will be back in your feed to tell you all about it. You can read the entire Criminal Complaint on our website, 13StepPodcast.org. That's the number 13.

The 13th Step is reported and produced by me, Lauren Children, mixing, production, and as you heard, additional reporting by Jason Moon, who also wrote the music you hear in the show. Allison McAddom is our editor. Additional editing from Senior Editor Katie Culinary and News Director Dan Barich. Sarah Plorid created our artwork and the website, and HBR's Director of Podcasts is Rebecca LaVoy. The 13th step is a production of the document team at New Hampshire Public Radio.