Police: Pollard confessed to hit-and-run

Defense attorney Stephen T. Jeffco of Portsmouth cross-examines Police Officer Eric Krans, who was the arresting officer in the case, as Leslie Pollard looks on. Krans has since taken a job with the Portsmouth Police Department. (Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - After being argumentative and deceptive during a 40-minute investigation by police into his involvement in a hit-and-run accident, Leslie Pollard, the husband of the city’s Economic Development Director, is said to have confessed at the booking bench inside the Rochester Police Station in the early hours of Monday, Dec. 30.

“He said, ‘I’m no criminal, she jumped in front of the car, she ran out in front of me,’” arresting officer Eric Krans said at Leslie Pollard’s probable cause hearing on Tuesday in Rochester District Court.

It was the first time in the case that police have mentioned a verbal confession from Leslie Pollard regarding his role in the alleged hit-and-run accident that left a 28-year old city woman with a broken collarbone.

At the end of the hearing as expected, Leslie Pollard’s felony conduct after an accident and misdemeanor DWI were both bound over to Strafford County Superior Court.

Dressed in slacks and a teal dress shirt, Leslie Pollard watched without emotion as County Attorney Thomas Velardi led Krans through the night of the incident, from when he arrived at the Pollard’s Hemlock Street home around 11:40 p.m. on Dec. 29 to find a seemingly drunken Leslie Pollard standing by his garage door to the moment an hour or so later when he became intensely emotional and made his stunning admission.

Krans said it wasn’t until he asked Leslie Pollard to write a statement that he refused and said he wanted an attorney.

Leslie and Karen Pollard await his probable cause hearing on Tuesday in Rochester District Court.

During the hearing, Karen Pollard sat quietly on a bench at the back of the courtroom. She is the city’s economic development director and a deputy city manager.

At no time during the investigation have the police implied or stated that she may have been driving the night of the accident, but defense lawyer StephenT. Jeffco of Portsmouth raised the possibility as he cross-examined Krans.

“So you never believed that he was covering up for his wife?” he asked Krans, who said no, he didn’t.

Jeffco also pointedly asked Krans if Leslie Pollard had asked for a lawyer prior to his booking table confession, much earlier when they were back at the Pollards’ home at 17 Hemlock St.

“He never said he wanted a lawyer (earlier at the house),” Krans said at one point.

“You have no recollection?” Jeffco pressed.

“I don’t recall,” Krans answered.

Jeffco also questioned Krans closely on damage to Leslie Pollard’s Ford Taurus and why police had not done a more thorough processing of the car as evidence the night of the incident. Police did not impound the car until the following day, and affidavits state that Karen Pollard had driven the car in the interim, leaving her cellphone by the driver’s seat.

Under Velardi’s questioning, Krans, who was the arresting officer, painted a picture of a drunken Leslie Pollard who lied about where he was that night, about how much he drank and continually interfered with Krans during his questioning of Karen Pollard.

Police affidavits have alleged that the woman hit had been drinking with the Pollards and two other friends at the downtown Club Victoire, where the victim has consumed several vodka and cranberry drinks and later didn’t remember who she left the club with.

At one point Jeffco persistently asked Krans if anybody had told him what the victim’s blood alcohol content was. Krans denied ever being told.

Police affidavits stated that the victim in the case along with the two other friends left the Pollards at the club and drove in their car onto Lowell Street where the vehicle broke down. Then the woman who was ultimately struck got out of the car and started walking saying she wanted to go home. Court affidavits say she remembered walking along Lowell Street, being hit, then trying to flag motorists down to help her.

Meanwhile, the two friends got their car going and proceeded to the residence of the Pollards, with whom they are friends.

Krans said he got to interview one of those friends during his investigation but they were so drunk they answered all his questions with the same answer: “Rochester.”

When Krans first arrived at the Pollard home that night, he was told that Leslie Pollard, upon arriving home after the incident, asked a family member to check the area on Lowell Street where he may have hit “an animal or ice” and then instructed his wife, Karen, to call the police.

But when Krans asked if he could speak to Mrs. Pollard, her husband said she’d gone to bed.

Krans said in court that he thought it was odd that she would be told to call 911 because her husband thought he might have hit something and then gone to bed.

When Krans persisted in his attempts to speak to Karen Pollard, Leslie Pollard finally relented but kept interrupting Krans during the interview.

Krans said at first Karen Pollard said she’d heard nothing on the way home, then became emotional and said she didn’t want to talk anymore.

When Kraus was returning to the kitchen area of the house after the interview with Karen Pollard, he said he saw Leslie Pollard chugging between a half bottle and three-quarters of a bottle of wine.

That was in addition to wine that Leslie Pollard said he had “chugged” when he first got home because he was nervous, Krans testified.

Meanwhile, Krans said in his interview with Karen Pollard that she said she consumed some wine with a chicken dinner they had at home that night before going to the Club Victoire and then had two more glasses at the club.

Leslie Pollard originally told Krans that the couple had had dinner at the Chef’s Table and he had consumed just a couple of beers. Police later found out that the Chef’s Table was closed that night.

Leslie Pollard refused a field sobriety test, Krans testified.

Last week Karen Pollard gave up her city-owned cellphone on which she had allegedly messaged Rochester Police Chief Michael Allen on Dec. 29 shortly after police had begun their investigation at the Pollards’ residence.

Rochester Police Capt. Paul Toussaint said on Monday police are continuing their forensic study of the device to see if any other messages relevant to the investigation are found.

Leslie Pollard’s personal recognizance bail was continued.