Kristin Ruggiero of East Kingston went to the media last year seeking help with an ongoing domestic violence case against her ex-husband.
Ruggiero told a television reporter she was so terrified of her ex-husband she couldn't sleep at night.
In an interview with the Exeter News-Letter, Ruggiero said he was posing as other people over the phone in an attempt to find out where she lived.
Now police allege that before she began her media campaign Ruggiero, 33, attempted to set up her ex-husband by sending a series of threatening text messages to herself from a cell phone she had falsely registered under his name.
According to a police affidavit, Ruggiero filed a complaint with East Kingston police claiming her ex-husband, Jeffrey Ruggiero, 39, sent her 12 text messages in May 2008, in violation of a protective order. Some of the messages were pleas to get back together, she claimed. Others were expletive-laced insults.
East Kingston Police Chief Richard Simpson prepared an arrest warrant, but Jeffrey Ruggiero asked the chief to take another look at the evidence, records show. Simpson decided to dig deeper and obtained records from the phone used to send the threatening messages.
According to the affidavit, police tracked where and when the phone was used. They discovered a call made in California was six-tenths of a mile from where Kristin Ruggiero was staying at the time.
Another call, placed from Nashville, Tenn., lined up with the date and time Kristin Ruggiero had flown into the city, the affidavit states.
Based on this evidence, Ruggiero was indicted last month on 12 felony counts of falsifying evidence and one misdemeanor count of filing a false report.
She is scheduled to appear in Rockingham County Superior Court next month.
Simpson and Assistant County Attorney Jerome Blanchard, who is handling the case, both refused to comment until after the trial.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Kristin Ruggiero denied the charges against her, dismissed the evidence presented by police as blatantly false and said she is looking forward to her day in court.
"I would like to go to trial tomorrow," she said. "I just want to prove myself. I want this to end. I want to move forward."
This indictment is the latest in an ongoing legal battle between the couple.
Jeffrey Ruggiero, who is stationed with the United States Coast Guard in Charleston, S.C., was convicted in Exeter District Court on April 30, 2008, on charges of criminal threatening, distributing obscene material and violating a protective order. According to Exeter prosecutor Heather Newell, Jeffrey Ruggiero appealed and these three charges were dropped in a negotiated deal.
Seeing her husband held accountable for these charges became somewhat of a crusade for Ruggiero last summer and her story appeared in various news outlets and blogs. She also appealed to a litany of public officials, including the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office and the Coast Guard, who she accused of protecting her husband.
In light of her past efforts to speak out against domestic violence, Kristin Ruggiero said these new charges have been difficult.
"It feels horrible," Ruggiero said. "I'm being accused of something I've worked so hard to get away from."
1 comment:
Kristin Ruggiero was convicted on all 13 charges on 5/7/10.
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=No+bail+for+woman+convicted+of+framing+ex-husband+by+texting&articleId=b0ca7b34-27a1-4771-a683-cb7ecdb65692
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