CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire sheriff has resigned a month after he was found guilty of drunken driving.
“The decision to step down as your sheriff is not an easy one,” Scott Hilliard said in a statement Wednesday thanking people for their support of the Merrimack County sheriff’s office. Hilliard said he will step down on March 31.
A judge had sentenced Hilliard to spend five days in the Belknap County jail. Hilliard was also found guilty of transporting an alcoholic beverage.
Hilliard was arrested in August in a restaurant parking lot in Tilton after officers responded to a call about a driver swerving on the road. The off-duty sheriff smelled of alcohol and was swaying when police encountered him walking to his car.
A judge ruled in December that Hilliard’s arrest was unlawful because police did not secure an arrest warrant.
The defense said that evidence collected after the arrest, including a blood draw, should be thrown out. But prosecutors successfully argued that Hilliard volunteered to give a blood draw, so it should be allowed as evidence.
Hilliard’s lawyer has appealed the evidence matter to the state Supreme Court.
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