Warner town administrator, select board member won’t be prosecuted following criminal investigation

Warner Town Administrator Kathleen Frenette and selectperson Michael Smith won’t be prosecuted after they were accused of disseminating private information of town welfare recipients, according to the Merrimack County Attorney’s office.

Frenette was placed on paid administrative leave on July 31 after Selectman Harry Seidel and an assessing department clerk made a complaint to Warner police. Assistant County Attorney Thomas Palermo sent a letter to the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office nearly eight months later, on March 20, outlining the lack of criminal charges.

The legal analysis found that private information had been included in emailed documents, but in both cases, Frenette was trying to secure aid for those individuals. Due to exceptions in the law that allow such information to be shared, Palermo determined that neither case could be proved without a reasonable doubt.

Weeks after Palermo’s letter was sent, Frenette said she has not heard from the select board about returning to her duties.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” she said.

The letter detailed how, on Sept. 4, Assessing Department Clerk Elizabeth Labbe told detectives in an interview she believed Frenette violated the law twice. Labbe received copies of emails between January and February 2025 regarding a welfare request. Normally, the town’s welfare director would handle the issue, but he was absent at that time, so it landed with Frenette. Smith gave Labbe the documents that he wanted copied and made public.

Labbe saw that Frenette emailed a welfare recipient’s mortgage holder and Warner’s finance director to share that the town would be handling the request, according to the letter. She said Frenette violated the law by sharing the name and other identifying details about the person to parties not privy to the information.

Frenette did a similar action in July 2025, Labbe told detectives. The welfare director had resigned at that point and his responsibilities were handled by Frenette. Two emergency welfare cases needed attention, and Labbe took on the work initially. She forwarded it to another party who then included Frenette. In her reply, Frenette included the town IT director and the select board chair. The email she sent included personal details such as names, dates of birth, social secuirty numbers and bank information.

Labbe told investigators that she reminded Frenette multiple times not to share sensitive information to anyone outside the necessary groups. She did note, however, that she did not believe Frenette acted with malicious intent.

The county attorney asserted that, while she may have improperly shared the information, Frenette was attempting to secure aid for the welfare recipients involved. In February 2025, she acted urgently to prevent a person from being evicted from their home. In July, she tried to coordinate with town officials and contractors to disburse financial aid to individuals.

Smith became involved in July after Frenette gave him a packet of documents that he delivered to the town’s civilian audit committee, which was conducting an investigation into the finance director. Smith said Frenette told him that the documents were public records.

The attorney said his case is “slightly more questionable,” as Smith did not do his due diligence to review whether they were public records. Still, the attorney found that Smith was performing his duties under the state’s welfare statute by sharing the documents as part of the investigation.

Smith was charged in March on a separate case accusing him of tampering with public records.

If given the option to come back to work, Frenette said she would, but the lack of communication has been “frustrating.”

Residents asked questions to the select board last month about Frenette’s return and did not receive clear answers. Town officials did not respond to comment at the time of publication.