A New Hampshire Superior Court judge will review more than 100 pages of redacted documents related to a $36.5 million contract for Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to staff the state psychiatric hospital, according to a report from the New Hampshire Union Leader.
The review comes as part of a lawsuit filed Oct. 23 by the N.H. Republican Committee against Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) and other state officials, according to the report. The lawsuit alleges state officials refused to release potentially damaging information under a September Right-to-Know request because the governor is running for a U.S. Senate seat, according to the report.
The Sept. 15 Right-to-Know request turned up emails with hundreds of pages completely or partially redacted for what the Attorney General claims was "executive privilege" because they involved correspondence with the governor, according to the report. The prosecution claims the emails suggest state officials conspired with New Hanover, N.H.-based Dartmouth College — whose contract recently expired with the psychiatric hospital — to design a request for proposal process that made Dartmouth-Hitchcock the only qualified candidate for the job, according to the report.
The state is required to submit to the judge a list of withheld documents and the reasoning behind those decisions by Friday, Nov. 4, and the prosecution will have 10 days to challenge the reasoning, according to the report. A judge will make the final ruling Nov. 21 on whether the documents should be withheld from the public, according to the report.
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