A New Hampshire man has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for the harassment of two journalists over a story detailing sexual misconduct allegations against a prominent businessman, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Tucker Cockerline, 33, of Salem, N.H., was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors say Cockerline and three co-conspirators agreed to stalk and intimidate two journalists employed by New Hampshire Public Radio in retaliation for an article published in March 2022.
The article, written by Lauren Chooljian, detailed findings of an NHPR investigation that “discovered multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, abusive leadership and retaliation” carried out by Eric Spofford, the founder and former CEO of Granite Recovery Centers, New Hampshire’s largest provider of addiction treatment.
Cockerline and three other men agreed to harass and intimidate Chooljian and another reporter who worked on the story, as well as their immediate family, by “vandalizing their homes in the middle of the night with bricks, rocks and red spray paint,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release.
On April 24, 2022, Cockerline spray-painted the word “C-NT” in large red letters on the front door of Chooljian’s former home in Hanover. He also threw a brick through an exterior window, officials said.
About a month later, on May 20, he spray-painted the same word on the reporter’s parents’ home in Hampstead and left a brick near the front door, according to court records.
He also provided co-conspirator Michael Waselchuck with a brick and red spray paint, asking him to vandalize Chooljian’s home again.
Several hours later, Waselchuck threw a brick through a window of the reporter’s residence in Melrose, Mass., and painted “JUST THE BEGINNING” in large red letters on the front of her house, officials said.
Similar vandalization was carried out on the Concord, N.H. home of contributing reporter Jason Moon.
Cockerline was arrested in June 2023. He was later indicted by a grand jury alongside Waselchuck and two other men, Eric Labarge and Keenan Saniatan.
Cockerline pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and using a facility of interstate commerce.
Waselchuck and Labarge have both pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Saniatan is expected to plead guilty early next month.
