{"id":4419,"date":"2023-12-28T12:03:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T16:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=4419"},"modified":"2023-12-28T12:03:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T16:03:37","slug":"indepthnh-speaker-packard-and-deputy-host-invitation-only-news-conference-defending-actions-in-merner-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=4419","title":{"rendered":"InDepthNH: Speaker Packard and Deputy Host \u2018Invitation Only\u2019 News Conference Defending Actions in Merner Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From in <a href=\"https:\/\/indepthnh.org\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/indepthnh.org\/\">inDepthNH.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Speaker Packard and Deputy Host \u2018Invitation Only\u2019 News Conference Defending<\/strong> Actions in Merner Case<br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indepthnh.org\/author\/nwest\/\">Nancy West<\/a><\/strong><br>12\/27\/2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CONCORD \u2013 House Speaker Sherman Packard and Deputy Speaker Steve Smith held an \u201cinvitation only\u201d press conference Wednesday regarding former Republican Rep. Troy Merner, who allegedly served the entire last House session after moving out of Lancaster and the district he was elected to represent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">InDepthNH.org and the Boston Globe were among those not invited. According to an article reporting on the secretive news conference, the NHJournal, New Hampshire Public Radio and Union Leader reporters attended the news conference in the Speaker\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Packard and Smith didn\u2019t return InDepthNH.org\u2019s request for an interview or information about the press conference or a handout reportedly distributed to reporters about the Merner case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merner, 63, of Carroll, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at Coos County Superior Court, but has waived arraignment and is next expected in court March 14, 2024, for a dispositional hearing, according to court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merner has been charged with one class B felony count of wrongful voting, and misdemeanor charges of theft by deception, unsworn falsification and tampering with public records. Merner has declined repeated requests to tell his side of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/indepthnh.org\/2023\/12\/27\/speaker-packard-and-deputy-host-invitation-only-news-conference-defending-actions-in-merner-case\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/indepthnh.org\/2023\/12\/27\/speaker-packard-and-deputy-host-invitation-only-news-conference-defending-actions-in-merner-case\/\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From in inDepthNH.org Speaker Packard and Deputy Host \u2018Invitation Only\u2019 News Conference Defending Actions in Merner CaseNancy West12\/27\/2023 CONCORD \u2013 House Speaker Sherman Packard and Deputy Speaker Steve Smith held an \u201cinvitation only\u201d press conference Wednesday regarding former Republican Rep. Troy Merner, who allegedly served the entire last House session&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}