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UNION-LEADER LACONIA, NEW HAMPSHIRE Police said a Laconia woman obsessed with a city police officer attempted to set fire to his house while his family was sleeping. Bail was set at $100,000 cash yesterday for Patricia Halsey-Carter, 41, of 33 Avery St., who works at the local Dunkin' Donuts. She is charged with four counts of arson, violation and contempt of a protective order and criminal mischief. Police believe she tried to burn Officer Allan Graton's house on Lyford Street during the early morning hours of Sept. 5. Inside were Graton, his small children and his girlfriend. The fire started near rubbish bins outside an attached garage. The blaze burned itself out, but damaged the garage. The officer discovered a still-smoldering fire in the morning and called police. The arson was committed, Capt. William Clary said, after supervising officers repeatedly told Halsey-Carter to stop contacting the officer, stop trying to see him and to stop calling him.  HALSEY-CARTER At a closed arraignment in Laconia District Court, yesterday, Judge J. Boynton ordered Halsey-Carter to have no contact with Graton, to sign a waiver of extradition and not to leave the state if she posts bail. An affidavit in support of arrest was ordered sealed. In court documents, Graton said he believed Halsey-Carter had come to his house on Christmas Day 2008, leaving two Cross pens and a package of Hershey's Kisses in the snow. In a request for a stalking petition last February, the officer wrote that he was "uncomfortable with these advances," which began after he first arrested her in January 2008. She was arrested for violating an order not to have contact with another individual. About a month later, she came in to the police department to file a complaint against her former employer and Graton began to investigate. Records show that after he handed the case over to another officer, she asked him out in an e-mail. Graton's supervisor, Capt. Steven A. Clarke wrote her back, saying Graton had told him "he has no interest in being contacted by you in the future." Graton said he went to Dunkin' Donuts on South Main Street for a coffee in his uniform, not knowing Halsey-Carter worked there. When she waited on him, and he put out his money for the coffee, he said "she caressed his hand." He said he stopped going to that coffee shop to avoid contact with the woman. In July 2008, she wrote to police and the police commission complaining of Graton's "unprofessionalism," saying that she felt he had an interest in her. She said she wondered if "he has a GPS device on my vehicle." Halsey-Carter is due in court folr a probable cause hearing Sept. 29.
EARLIER NEWS ITEM/ UNION-LEADER LACONIA, NEW HAMPSHIRE A local woman, obsessed with a police officer, tried to burn down his home while he and his family were asleep inside, according to police. The officer, who police declined to identify, had a restraining order against the accused, Patricia M. Halsey-Carter, 41, of 33 Avery St., Apt. C, after she stalked him for several months, according to Capt. William Clary. Clary said the officer previously arrested Halsey-Carter and had taken complaints from her. However, Clary said the officer had no personal relationship with her. He characterized the case as one of obsession on the part of Halsey-Carter. The arson was committed, Clary said, after supervising officers repeatedly told Halsey-Carter to stop contacting the officer, stop trying to see him and to stop calling him. The officer, his fiancee and two children were asleep inside the Lyford Street home on Sept. 5 when the blaze was set in a garbage can near the home's attached garage. The blaze burned itself out but damaged the garbage can and garage. The officer discovered a still smoldering fire in the morning and called the station. Clary said evidence police collected at the scene led to Halsey-Carter but he declined to say what that was. He said it took investigators 1 1/2 weeks to develop enough evidence to obtain warrants.
WMUR.com A Laconia woman has been charged with setting fire to a trash can outside a police officer's home. Police said Patricia Halsey-Carter lit a trash can on fire outside the officer's garage earlier this month. The garage is connected to a house where the officer was sleeping with his wife and a child. Police said Halsey-Carter had an infatuation with the officer. "We always think about it, but unfortunately, this officer had to live it," said Capt. William Clary. Investigators said her love for the officer appears to have blossomed last year when he was booking her on a charge of harassing her former boss, a charge that has since been dropped. In the following months, her activity led the officer to seek a restraining order. He wrote that she asked him out to coffee, left Hershey's Kisses outside his house and left him a package of perfume on his doorstep at Christmas. Investigators said they went through a list of possible suspects after the fire was set before narrowing it down to Halsey-Carter. They said items gathered from the crime scene and her apartment helped lead to her arrest. "That evidence, we believe, was significant," Clary said. "So much so that we haven't had a chance to go through it all." Police said they're taking steps to prosecute the case fairly and making sure the officer at the center of the case isn't involved in the investigation. Affidavits in the case were sealed in Laconia District Court, however, because Clary said the investigation is ongoing and officers need to review all the evidence gathered.
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