Concord
David Pook, 48, of Warner will spend four months in county jail on misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit false swearing and criminal contempt of court. As part of a plea agreement, all felony charges were dismissed.
Pook was arrested by the state Attorney General’s Office in February as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the Concord prep school’s handling of sexual misconduct and assault allegations over several decades. Deputy Attorney General Jane Young said on Friday that the investigation was affected negatively as prosecutors turned their attention to Pook, who schemed with a former student, Stephanie O’Connell, to lie under oath.
“The state is investigating St. Paul’s School for actions of students. The conduct of this defendant and the co-conspirator sidetracked this investigation for months because of their concerted effort to lie,” Young said.
As a condition of his 120-day sentence, Pook is prohibited from holding another teaching job in New Hampshire.
Pook taught at St. Paul’s from 2000 to 2008 before he left under what authorities said were “questionable circumstances,” and yet was recommended for employment at Derryfield School, a private day school in Manchester.
While St. Paul’s maintains Pook was let go following “a boundary violation with a student,” investigators say Pook and O’Connell had a sexual relationship that began years ago and continued as recently as his arrest.
State prosecutors maintain the contents of emails exchanged between Pook and O’Connell between February 2008 and October 2008 show an emerging relationship that led to Pook’s quiet termination from St. Paul’s. Some of those emails were included in the state’s sealed motion to disclose records to Derryfield School, whose administrators did not know why Pook was dismissed from St. Paul’s. Those records were subject to a protective order, but investigators said Pook shared them with O’Connell anyway.
“Specifically, your honor, you mandated that the defendant is prohibited from copying, publishing, transmitting, uploading or duplicating the records in any manner,” Young said. “But a half-hour after this man, with a PhD, was served that in-hand, at 4:30, he contacted Stephanie O’Connell.”
O’Connell testified before the grand jury for several hours on Dec. 6. She denied under oath having had any sexual contact with Pook as a student or at any time since then. Further, she said her most recent contact with Pook had been in summer 2017.
Cellphone records, however, show multiple calls between Pook and O’Connell in October, November and December.
The Attorney General’s Office said Pook was called before the grand jury on Dec. 7, but “he did not provide any substantive testimony.”
In court on Friday, Pook pleaded guilty to violating a court order and to telling O’Connell to lie under oath, but remained adamant that allegations of a sexual relationship are unfounded.
His attorney, Mark Sisti, said Pook never had any sexual contact with students at St. Paul’s or Derryfield.
When given the opportunity to address the court, Pook declined.
Pook was fired from Derryfield School after his arrest in February and prohibited from being on its Manchester campus.
President of St. Paul’s Board of Trustees Archibald Cox apologized to Derryfield School in March for the actions of former Rector Bill Matthews, who gave Pook a “favorable recommendation.” Cox also called Pook’s departure from St. Paul’s “overdue and badly handled.”