NH man gets jail time for harassing NHPR journalists

A federal judge in Boston sentenced a New Hampshire man to more than three years in prison for harassing and stalking two New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) journalists and their families, U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office announced this week.

Eric Labarge, 46, of Nashua, was sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Labarge was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and pay restitution of $34,139 to the victims. 

According to Levy’s office, Labarge was the ringleader of a targeted terror campaign that began after the NHPR journalists published an exposé in March 2022 detailing the sexual misconduct allegations against a New Hampshire businessman.

Prosecutors say the person named in the article was a close friend of Labarge and that Labarge “orchestrated a months-long scheme to harass, stalk, and intimidate” the two journalists and their family members. Labarge hired co-conspirators Tucker Cockerline, Michael Waselchuck and Keenan Saniatan to help carry out the harassment, according to officials.

In a news release, Levy said the scheme caused the victims “incredible fear and emotional harm.”

“Mr. Labarge’s terror campaign sent ripples of fear throughout the journalism community and violated the bedrock principles enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Our office remains steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding the rights of journalists to report without fear of retribution and to put behind bars those who try to silence the media through threats and violence,” Levy said. 

In one incident a month after the article was published, Cockerline and Saniatan spraypainted an expletive in large red letters on the reporters’ front doors and threw a brick through one journalist’s window and a rock through another’s window, according to officials. Saniatan carried out a similar assault on the home of one of the reporter’s parents, according to Levy’s office. 

Officials say similar vandalism happened again in May 2022 after Waselchuck was recruited to the campaign. In those incidents, Cockerline spraypainted an expletive in large red letters on a garage door at one of the journalist’s parents’ homes and left a brick on the ground near the front door, according to the statement.

Prosecutors say that hours later, Waselchuck threw a brick through an exterior window of that same reporter’s home in Massachusetts and painted the phrase “JUST THE BEGINNING” in large red letters on the front of the house.

Prosecutors say Labarge gave the men direction to carry out the acts of vandalism. He was arrested and charged in September 2023 along with Cockerline, Waselchuck, and Saniatan.

In July 2024, Labarge pleaded guilty to several charges, including conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and using a facility of interstate commerce, and aiding and abetting.

Cockerline and Waselchuck received prison sentences of 27 months and 21 months, respectively. Each sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to Levy. Saniatan has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 6.

“Eric Labarge will now pay a hefty price for being the vindictive ringleader of an elaborate harassment campaign that inflicted significant emotional harm, stress, and fear on New Hampshire Public Radio employees and their family members who were simply just doing their jobs,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “Let today’s sentence be a warning: Anyone attempting to infringe on the freedom of the press — a constitutionally protected right — will not get away with it.”

Morgan Rousseau

Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.

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