Londonderry Fish and Game Club in Litchfield, N.H. accuses a couple of libel and making slanderous comments against the club to the media and local officials “without a shred of evidence” the club had caused bullet strikes in their neighborhood. LFGC is seeking damages for the “wanton, willful, and malicious nature of the defendants’ conduct.”
Londonderry Fish and Game Club in Litchfield, N.H. filed a defamation lawsuit against a couple over comments the pair have made over the past year claiming their home was struck by stray bullets from the gun range, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported.
The suit, filed in Rockingham County Superior Court by Attorney Sean List on behalf of Londonderry Fish and Game Club (LFGC), accuses Janine and Kevin Anctil of libel and making slanderous comments against LFGC to the media and local officials “without a shred of evidence” the club had caused bullet strikes in their neighborhood, the Union Leader reported.
“Due to the defendants’ persistent defamation of the plaintiff, the plaintiff has suffered and continues to suffer significant damages within the jurisdictional limits of the court including, but not limited to, reputational harm, humiliation, attorney’s fees, and legal costs,” the complaint reads.
“It is unfortunate that LFGC has been compelled to file suit in this matter, but the Anctils’ unrelenting smear campaign against the club has left us with no choice,” List said in an e-mail.
LFGC is seeking damages for the “wanton, willful, and malicious nature of the defendants’ conduct,” according to the complaint, the Union Leader reported.
In an e-mail, LFGC President Rick Olson told the Union Leader the club has no comment at this time but to only state that “it regrets that it has come to filing a lawsuit in court and that it is regrettable that in its 70-year history, this is only the second time that legal action has become necessary.”
The complaint was served on the Anctils on Oct. 24, and the return of service was filed with the court Oct. 27, the Union Leader reported. Attempts to reach the Anctils for comment on the lawsuit were unsuccessful.
LFGC is a private club of 1,500 members that has continually operated since it was established in 1951, the Union Leader reported. The club is situated on approximately 83 acres of land containing a clubhouse, private fish pond, archery range, ax-throwing range, and multiple shooting ranges.
To secure membership to LFGC, an individual must provide proof of the legal ability to possess firearms and submit to a new member orientation program covering club operations, range rules and safety, the Union Leader reported. The orientation process is approximately 2 1/2 hours long, club officials said in court documents.
LFGC opened a 200-yard shooting range in November 2017, followed by a 400-yard shooting range in early 2018, the Union Leader reported. According to court documents, both the 200- and 400-yard ranges have berms on three sides, including end berms exceeding 20 feet in height.
In a September 2021 interview with the Union Leader, Janine Anctil claimed her residence was just the latest in the neighborhood to be hit after a bullet shattered a hole in a window less than 10 feet from where her husband was sitting the morning of Sept 14.
“We’re a direct straight line from the end of the long-range shooting range at the gun club in Londonderry,” she said.
At the time, Olson said he was “highly skeptical” about the claims of the bullets coming from the range, built seven years prior to the incident, the Union Leader reported. He said there have been cases of bullets being fired near houses by people shooting from nearby powerline corridors.
In 2015, a bullet sailed through the window of a cafeteria at a Londonderry business, the Union Leader reported. Two individuals who had been shooting recklessly in the wooded area nearby the business were arrested, court documents show.
Recreational shooting activity has been banned in Litchfield state forest since 2020, the Union Leader reported.
In a report broadcast by WFXT on Sept. 23, 2021, Kevin Anctil made comments that gave the impression new information may have confirmed the bullet strikes came from LFGC, the Union Leader reported.
“Prior to tonight I was couching my statements very carefully,” Anctil said during the interview. “There’s an ongoing police investigation so I cannot reveal too much, but I have been reinforced in my beliefs and I don’t have any doubt that these bullets are originating from this gun range. Nothing else adds up.’”
According to court documents, on Sept. 14, 2021, Kevin Anctil contacted Litchfield police after his son found a garage window was broken at the Anctils’ home, the Union Leader reported.
Police responded and noted a small hole in the window screen and larger hole in the glass, but were “unable to locate any sort of projectile that struck the window.”
Court documents show Litchfield police visited the Anctil home again on Sept. 20, 2021, and after emptying out “approximately 1/3 of the garage” they located a projectile that they believed came through the window, the Union Leader reported. The projectile was taken as evidence.
On Sept. 21, 2021, police visited the home of Brian Allaire, who reported a bullet hitting his home on Dec. 21, 2015, the Union Leader reported. A bullet was recovered from the sheetrock of an exterior wall, and taken into evidence.
“During her call with Sgt. Tessier, Mrs. Anctil claimed that there had been six instances of bullet strikes in her neighborhood,” the LFGC complaint reads. “In total, the Litchfield PD’s investigation into the Anctil’s complaint resulted in only two projectiles being recovered.”
Both bullets were sent to the New Hampshire Department of Safety Forensic Lab, which released a report on Sept. 27, 2021, identifying both bullets as “.30 caliber, copper-coated steel jacketed bullets, commonly loaded into 7.62 x 39mm cartridges,” the Union Leader reported. In its complaint, LFGC reports 7.62 x 39mm cartridges are intermediate rifle cartridges not designed for long-distance shooting.
“The ballistic math simply does not support that the bullet that struck the Anctil home originated from typical shooting activity at LFGC, approximately 1.3 miles away,” the complaint reads. “Further, the only other bullet recovered and tested was the bullet that struck the Allaire residence [39 Tanager Way] two years before the 200- and 400-yard ranges at LFGC even existed. In summary, for a bullet fired from a 7.62 x 39mm cartridge to travel the approximately 1.3 miles to the Anctil home, make it over the berm, make it over the tree line, and then make it over the 80+ foot elevation increase, a shooter would need to fire at a radical upward angle. The Anctils have no evidence that such a highly unlikely incident occurred. To date, no law enforcement agency has ever concluded that LFGC caused the bullet strikes in the area of Tanager Way.”
According to court documents, on June 13 the Anctils appeared at a meeting of the Litchfield Board of Selectmen with a group of supporters where they publicly made several claims including that nine bullets had landed around their street, and that multiple police investigations had determined the bullet strikes likely originated from LFGC, the Union Leader reported.
“The Anctils’ smear campaign against the club is unrelenting and continues to the present date, compelling LFGC to incur unnecessary expense and pursue legal action,” reads the LFGC complaint.
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