CONCORD — The former executive director of Listen Community Services has pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzling more than $230,000 from the social services nonprofit.

Kyle Fisher, who federal prosecutors say is now residing in Holly Springs, N.C., entered his plea in the form of a waiver of appearance he filed with the federal court in Concord on May 19. His arraignment had been scheduled for Wednesday.

Fisher also has hired a high-profile New Hampshire defense attorney, Charles “Chuck” Keefe, of Nashua, court records show.

The parties have been ordered by the court to consult with the federal court system’s Probation and Pretrial Services division and submit proposed conditions of release for approval by June 1 or a bail hearing will be scheduled.

The court also set a date for jury selection and trial for a two-week period beginning July 11 before Judge Paul J. Barbadoro in the federal court in Concord, court records show.

Fisher, 42, who formerly resided in Grantham and Cornish, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Hampshire earlier this month with using his access to the Listen’s financial and bookkeeping system to divert funds into personal bank accounts he controlled over a period of 19 months in 2021 and 2022, prosecutors charged in the May 10 indictment.

He then used the embezzled funds to gamble at a casino, the government alleges.

Keefe, a former prosecutor with both the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, is a past president of the New Hampshire Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Keefe’s cases include the successful defense of Isaiah Rivera-Perez, 24, a Manchester man and marijuana dealer charged in 2020 who was acquitted last year on a second-degree murder charge in the shooting and killing of a 17-year old gang member who invaded Rivera-Perez’s home to rob him of money from his business.

Keefe also represented Ryder Winegar, 34, of Amherst, N.H., who pleaded guilty in 2021 to threatening to hang members of Congress if they didn’t “get behind Donald Trump.” Winegar was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine.

Keefe did not respond to messages left with his office on Wednesday.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.

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