A New Hampshire man who was heralded as the first black sheriff in the state’s history was sentenced on Monday to 3 1/2 years in prison for squandering $19,000 of taxpayers’ money on expensive getaways with multiple love interests — and then lying to investigators about what he’d done. Tightly following the script we’ve seen so many times before, the disgraced “barrier-breaker” had previously said fellow Democrats who investigated his crimes were racists, and that his term in office was “rife with inequities.” Despite repeatedly lying to the court and violating his bail conditions, his sentence was a fraction of what prosecutors sought.
At 35 years old, Democrat Mark Brave was also the youngest-ever sheriff in New Hampshire history when he was elected in November 2020 — following the summer of George Floyd and amid the Black Lives Matter mania that swept the country and helped usher under-qualified blacks into many top roles in and out of law enforcement. “It’s something I feel should have happened a long time ago, but I’m honored that I will be the person to pave the way,” said Brave at the time. (Alas, some barriers proved insurmountable that year, as a self-described transgender Satanist lost the Cheshire County New Hampshire sheriff race.)
— Daniel Concannon (@TooWhiteToTweet) May 19, 2025
“His repeated lies, misuse of taxpayer funds, and abuse of office were not just criminal — they were a profound betrayal of the public trust and the oath he took to serve with integrity,” said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in a statement. That said, the sentence handed down by lily-white Judge Dan St. Hilaire was far lighter than the seven- to 14-year confinement that prosecutors had requested. Brave will technically be eligible for parole in 3 1/2 years, but the reality is that he’ll walk even sooner if he participates in certain prison programs. He must pay $18,969 in restitution to Strafford County.
The judge’s leniency was at odds with his characterization of Brave’s conduct. “The court has reviewed a record that has been unlike any other case that has come before it, mainly because of the continuation of the crimes that were being committed while the case was proceeding.” The judge was apparently referring to Brave’s:
- Lying to the grand jury
- Lying on his application for public defense by failing to disclose $1.5 million received on the sale of his home
- Violating his bail conditions by paying $52,000 to lease an apartment in Boston, when he was mandated to remain in New Hampshire; he also traveled to Florida and Puerto Rico
- Lying to the judge, saying he was living in Dover with his ex-wife and that he was out of money
- Failing to disclose his purchase of a 1968 Porsche, though he posted videos and photos of the vehicle to social media
Brave went wild with his county credit card, using it to fund multiple trips to destinations in Florida, Baltimore and Maryland for getaways with various women — with at least some of the trysts happening while Brave was married. He attempted to conceal his misuse of funds by attributing the travel to fictional business meetings and training sessions. He also lied to investigators and a grand jury. Some of his lies were exposed by hotel lobby security cameras that captured him in the company of women on trips where he claimed to have been traveling alone.
Brave’s misconduct started to unravel when an audit prompted an inquiry into JetBlue tickets purchased for a 2022 trip to Fort Lauderdale. Not content to merely steal public money, Brave opted for JetBlue’s pricey “EvenMore” package, with the pair of tickets costing $1,615. Defending the expenditure, Brave said he needed the extra room because he’s 6′ 2″ tall, and claimed he’d traveled with a “well-built, muscular” deputy. Investigators found, however, that he was traveling with female employee.
In another comical instance in which he was caught in a lie about a supposed business trip with a colleague, County Administrator Raymond Bower asked Brave why the hotel room only had a single king-bed. “There was a slight pause, and he said, “Oh, aw, the other person slept on the couch,” Bower said in an affidavit. He also lied about spending money on business meals associated with meetings with the completely fictional “New England Sheriff’s Association.”
He also installed a friend, Freezenia Veras, in a newly-created $80,000 job, and jetted off to Florida with her for a non-existent consultation with a law enforcement agency. In one of his many lies to a grand jury, Brave denied that he took another woman on a dinner cruise using his county credit card. When prosecutors whipped out a photo of Brave and the woman, he hilariously couldn’t come up with her name: “Her name, her name is … um … let me see, I forget which one this is. I’ve been dating a lot of people,” he told the grand jury, according to NH Journal.
Brave also traveled to Maryland to spend time with Kenisha Epps-Schmidt, whom he’d met online. He tried papering over that embezzlement by attributing the trip to a Washington DC meeting with Rep. Chris Pappas that never happened. Brave proceeded to cheat Epps-Schmidt out of $2,300 she gave him to buy a car — which he never did.
Add it all up, and we have another low-IQ miscreant advanced to a position of authority because he had the right skin color. That’s bad enough, but the black-catering madness carried over over to his sentencing, as a white Republican judge ensured a short stay in prison despite the black defendant’s profound and repeated contempt for the criminal justice system all throughout the adjudication of his crime.
As part of his plea deal, Brave is barred from seeking a law enforcement job during his post-confinement probation. That still leaves him in prime position to become the boyfriend of a leftist congresswoman or a progressive NGO executive and take a salary for providing “security consultant” services. Just axe former Rep. Cori Bush or Black Lives Matters Global Network Foundation co-founder Patrissee Cullors how it works.
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