County Attorney Candidate Fired From County Attorney Solicitor Job After 2025 Misconduct Investigation

CONCORD, NH — One of the candidates running for county attorney was fired from a solicitor’s position in the department last year after complaints and an investigation of inappropriate comments and text messages, according to files obtained by Patch via 91-a record requests.

But Steven Endres, a long-time Republican from Bradford who switched parties after being fired, challenged some of the allegations and denied some of the findings.

The investigation began when Endres texted his former legal secretary in the county attorney’s office on Valentine's Day in February 2025, commenting on another secretary’s attire. The former secretary shared the message with the woman the text was about, who reported it to the office manager because it made her uncomfortable.

After the comment was reported to the department’s office manager, Kelly Johnson, the county's assistant director of human resources, spoke with several county employees and learned of claims of a history of inappropriate comments and what they deemed “creepy” behavior. The county then launched an investigation into the allegations against Endres.

A 50-Page Report

The investigation was conducted by Sarah Freeman of DrummondWoodsum.

She delivered a 50-page report and interviewed four legal secretaries, ranging in age from their mid-20s to late-30s; the department’s office manager; and an investigator from the Sexual Assault Response Team, all women, as well as a facilities supervisor who is married to one of the secretaries and Endres, both men.

Freeman found the secretaries, who shared an office between 2022 and 2024, “enjoyed a collegial, friendly relationship,” and “from time to time… would make jokes or comments of a sexual nature to each other.” But none found the comments to each other offensive. Endres also made jokes or comments of a sexual nature to the secretaries and the assault investigator, with the women expressing “varying levels of discomfort with the jokes and comments (he made),” Freeman said. Generally, before 2024, the investigator said, Endres’ jokes or comments were either about himself or about others. But in or about 2024, “that began to change,” she wrote.

The investigator said, in one instance, a secretary heard Endres make a comment implying his secretary should ride on his shoulders with her crotch against his face. His secretary claimed he implied in a comment that she was “hot” and whispered in her ear, “you really are,” according to the investigator.

The officer manager also confirmed that in 2024, Endres’ former secretary and another secretary “raised general concerns about (his) conduct” during exit interviews, but none provided details, so she did not take further action.

The Comment That Started The Investigation

In January 2025, a former employee with the office, who is connected to one of the secretaries, her husband, and Endres on social media, said he posted a meme with the text, “I am the naked window neighbor and I won’t apologize” and included the comment, “I forget I live on a main road sometimes,” along with emojis, the report said. He ended the post by saying, “Wish my office was on the other side of the building now.”

The comment was visible to the secretary, and she said it was Endres’ way of saying, “he wished he could see their former colleague naked from his office,” the report stated. One of the secretary’s husbands, who saw the comment, “was aware of a comment (he) made to (an investigator) a few months before about always being willing to attend meetings at the County Advocacy Center because the people there are attractive,” the report stated.

On Feb. 14, 2025, one of the secretaries felt unwell, complained about the heat in the office, and took off her vest. Endres entered the secretary’s office and commented that the secretary’s shirt was “inappropriate,” the report said. She did not think so, but she put her vest back on even though she was not feeling well, the investigator said. Later that day, the woman commented on the color of Endres’ flannel shirt, and he stated, “in a quiet voice… ‘You just want to see me take my shirt off’,” the report stated.

Later that evening, Endres sent a message to his former secretary wishing her a Happy Valentine’s Day and, while commenting on the secretary who took off her vest, said, “You missed (her) low cut tight shirt today. You would’ve loved it,” the report said.

The former secretary and her former co-worker shared the message on Snapchat, and “both were deeply upset” Endres would write something like that about her.

The investigator said Endres did not recall sending the text message, but it led to the investigation.

Ten days later, Endres posted a comment on social media, saying, “This too shall pass. And then some other bullshit will come and take its place. It never f---ing ends,” the report said, and the women believed the comment was made about the investigation. One woman expressed concern about retaliation because, in her mind, Endres was “untouchable” because of his long, close relationship with County Attorney Paul Halvorsen, the report stated.

While Endres told the investigator the comment “was not intended to be retaliatory and was made because he was experiencing a number of (redacted) and professional challenges,” she wrote, and she gave him credit for that, Freeman added, “Attorney Endres made a number of troubling comments about his ability to work with those employees whom he believes made allegations against him during the course of this investigation.”

Freeman also said she was concerned with Endres’ “adamant denial that a power imbalance exists between him, as the county solicitor, and the legal secretaries because he is not their direct supervisor.” She said a power imbalance could exist due to “managerial authority,” and pointed to state rules of professional conduct between attorneys and non-attorneys. He acknowledged many employees went to him with issues because they believed Endres could influence Halvorsen, and employees perceived their strong relationship.

“Attorney Endres’s continued denial that power imbalance between him and the legal secretaries either demonstrates a fundamental lack of self-awareness or is a deliberate attempt to excuse his conduct,” she wrote.

Jokes and comments of a sexual nature, even without the power imbalance, would be unwelcome and interfere with an employee’s work performance, she said. The investigator was also concerned about Endres’ discussion of his secretary’s purported sexual history and attempts to ascertain whether she had a “level of sexuality naivety” with other coworkers, and how he failed to understand or acknowledge he should not have done so, according to the report.

Other Inappropriate Comments, Secretaries Say

Freeman interviewed one secretary, in her late 30s, who was married to another county employee.

She claimed Endres tended to “gravitate toward the younger women in the office,” the report stated. She also claimed he said he wished Halvorsen would hire younger women for the office after the two younger secretaries had resigned. The woman claimed another secretary in her early 20s declined to go to the break room because “I don’t feel like dealing with Steve,” the investigator said. The secretary said the younger secretary declined to report her experiences because of a prior claim that an attorney had looked down her shirt, which HR later determined was unfounded.

Endres’ secretary had been with the team for about four years before resigning, and she overheard Endres making comments about her, such as “you’re hot,” on several occasions, the report said.

“She reports that when Attorney Endres made these comments, (the women) would ‘awkwardly laugh’ and try to ignore it,” Freeman said.

The secretary also mentioned the motorcycle comment, saying it started when someone else in the office suggested his secretary ride on his shoulders while he was on his motorcycle, and “he quietly questioned whether (she) would be facing toward his face or away from his face,” the report said. She said the secretaries discussed the comment after he left the office, and she believed it was inappropriate, Freeman wrote.

The secretary discussed the Feb. 14, 2025, incident in which she accused Endres of telling her to cover up with the vest even though she did not think her shirt violated the dress code. She confirmed she said she liked the colors of his flannel shirt and was “taken aback by (his) comment” that somehow a compliment meant she wanted him to take off his shirt.

When asked about the exchange concerning her clothes with his former secretary, she described feeling “violated” and said no one should be talking about her like that at work. Up until that point, Freeman wrote, the secretary thought she had a good working relationship with Endres. She later learned her husband had overheard the sexual assault investigator’s comment about the “cute girls” in the County Advocacy Center.

The secretary also said she did not think Endres was a bad person, but he can “just be creepy,” the report stated.

The report redacted other parts of the interview that reportedly involved pineapple stickers being turned over, how that signified being a swinger, and other sexual comments made at the office.

The report also said Endres contacted his former secretary, now in another state, to meet up while he was in her area for work. He regarded it as “absurdity” that she thought he was trying to make a move on her, according to a comment he made to another secretary, the report said.

Endres’ former secretary, who now lives out of state, was also interviewed.

She described him as a talker who would regularly come by the secretary’s office a few times a week to chat. She confirmed the camaraderie and jovial nature of the women in the office. Because of her work hours and redacted personal issues, she was often in the office at different hours than others. Endres inquired about her hours when they were both at the office late, the report said. She also recalled several comments she thought were inappropriate and reported them to the office manager when she left, the report stated.

One comment she called “odd” concerned a camping trip where he hoped to see “hot 20-year-olds out there” but was disappointed there were none.

On the motorcycle-shoulder comment, she did not hear exactly what he said but was “shocked” when she discussed it with the other secretaries after he left the room. Freeman wrote, “(Endres’ secretary) agreed it was inappropriate, but she has been (redacted) and therefore, was not uncomfortable and felt it was ‘no big deal’.”

In another example, during the summer, before she resigned, Endres’ secretary commented on how hot she was, referring to the room temperature. Afterward, “Endres leaned forward and quietly said, ‘You really are’,” Freeman wrote.

“(The secretary) did not respond,” the investigator wrote. “(But) this comment (made) her feel more uncomfortable than the motorcycle comment because this comment was ‘said directly to her and she heard it’.”

The report raised other comments and issues, about a page’s worth of content, but the information was redacted.

Part of the accusation, which Endres later denied, was a comment to his secretary about having dinner with another couple and asking a member of the couple to engage in a sexual relationship with him.

Another secretary, who worked with the department for about two years, in two roles, was also interviewed.

She claimed Endres came into the secretary’s office “almost on a daily basis” but “was rarely there to give them any work,” the report said. She said he would talk about work but then got more casual, joked with them, and began to cross the line, “particularly toward (his secretary),” Freeman wrote.

“She believes that he would never say some of the things that he said to the legal secretaries to anyone else in the office,” the investigator wrote. “She described him as being ‘too comfortable,’ but did not know if it was because they were younger, or female, or secretaries, or something else.”

The secretary said the motorcycle comment followed a previous comment weeks earlier.

The first comment occurred at the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024 and involved him talking about following “hot motorcycle girls” on Instagram and described the woman by saying, “Aw, they have big boobs” and “they are straddling their motorcycles with their long blonde hair,” the report stated.

In early 2024, Endres was talking with the women about riding motorcycles, “when the conversation became sexual in nature,” the report said. Endres, the report said, made a comment about his secretary sitting on his face while riding the motorcycle.

“In the moment,” the report said, “the three legal secretaries tried to laugh it off.”

Later, the secretary recalled telling someone at home she could not believe Endres would make that comment at work. She added, she worked in the restaurant industry, so she did not take offense at the comment.

She also confirmed the comment about the office being hot and Endres was accused of telling his secretary she was attractive.

“(The secretary) recalls that (his secretary) was ‘a little creeped out’ by his comment,” Freeman wrote.

The secretary never reported Endres because the inappropriate conduct was not directed at her. She said she believed her secretary reported the information to the office manager around the time she resigned.

The investigator said this secretary also overheard a comment from Endres shortly after his secretary resigned, claiming he said, “Apparently, I’m texting people outside of work,” implying he had been told not to do so. The report said she believed either the office manager or Halvorsen spoke to him.

A footnote by the investigator stated the office manager denied speaking to Endres. Endres also told Patch he was not spoken to or warned before being fired.

A large section of this secretary’s comments was also redacted.

Office Manager Interviewed

The county attorney’s office manager, who worked for the county for 16 years, was also interviewed.

She said Endres mainly handled 91-a requests, grand jury files, interaction with the victim-witness coordinator, and handed civil commitments of sexually violent predators. She had known him for four years and confirmed that complaints about his comments and conduct began in the summer of 2024, after she heard a remark from one of the secretaries who was unhappy with something Endres said. When she pressed the woman for information, she hesitated and said, “Well… you know, we’re OK, we’re OK,” she said.

After Endres’ secretary resigned, saying she felt uncomfortable and that he texted her outside of work, the officer manager said she believed he wanted to “date” her. When the officer manager asked if she wanted to report anything, she declined.

The officer manager accused Endres of spending “a lot of time” in the legal secretary's office and that he “talks and talks and talks.” She described the office as friendly, with attorneys chatting for a few minutes, while Endres appeared to “hang out there,” the report said.

The officer manager confirmed that the secretary was “very upset and uncomfortable” about the Feb. 14, 2025, text and told her to report it to HR. The secretary, however, “didn’t want to get in trouble,” but the officer manager assured her she would not.

“(The secretary) is willing to put up with so much,” the officer manager said. “It must have taken her a lot for her to text me.”

She also worried about what would happen since Endres and Halvorsen were very close friends.

Endres and Halvorsen went to law school together decades ago, worked for many years at the Concord city prosecutor’s office, and when Halvorsen was elected county attorney, he interviewed him for a job before even being sworn in.

The officer manager did not know “for sure” if Endres had “crossed the line.”

Rape Investigator Taken Aback By Comment

Freeman also spoke to the investigator with the sexual assault response team about Endres.

The report said she knew him from when they worked together in another municipality.

She called him very smart and said he was willing to explain complicated areas of the law to her, and she never felt uncomfortable with him. She was surprised to learn about the text message concerning the clothes.

The sexual assault investigator was also the person who invited Endres to the meeting at the County Advocacy Center. On their way to the office, she recalled him saying something to the effect of, “Hopefully there will be cute or attractive girls at the SART meeting,” although she could not recall the exact statement.

“(The) investigator recalls pausing and being taken aback by Attorney Endres’s comment,” Freeman wrote. “She might have said ‘what?’ but that Attorney Endres did not reply. (The) investigator does not believe that the comment was appropriate but was not offended by it.”

She likened it to previous comments she had heard working in law enforcement and construction.

The investigator also spoke to the secretary’s husband, who worked in the building and knew some of the complaints against Endres.

Freeman also spoke with another younger legal secretary who did not recall some of the conversations, saying she was often focused on work and would “block out” side conversations.

Endres Is Interviewed

Freeman interviewed Endres, and they spoke about his responsibilities and his relationship with Halvorsen, according to the report.

Endres denied having any heightened influence over the county attorney but did acknowledge coworkers brought matters to his attention that should have gone to Halvorsen. He confirmed other people in the office came to him because they knew he was friends with the county attorney.

Endres said he did not assign work to the legal secretaries and did not have supervisory authority over them, adding they often brought work to him. Freeman said he adamantly denied a power imbalance between him and secretaries or investigators and believed they had a friendly relationship.

Endres said he used the break room to prepare his lunch and occasionally ate there, but denied eating with one of the secretaries who claimed she did not like being around him.

He confirmed that he enjoyed camping but did not recall the comment about hot 20-year-olds.

Endres did recall speaking about “van life” people on Instagram who might be “young and attractive” but said he could not afford to live that lifestyle. He claimed the secretary “intimated a belief that the ‘young, attractive van life’ people also maintained OnlyFans sites, which is how they afforded the lifestyle,” Freeman wrote.

Endres denied speaking about OnlyFans in the office unless the website was connected to a case, the report stated.

A large section of the explanation around the “level of sexual naivety” accusation was redacted from the report, but one part concerned use of the term “DTF,” which is slang for “down to f---.” It also stands for “Drug Task Force,” Freeman wrote.

Endres also acknowledged an interest in motorcycles and following accounts on Instagram but denied making the comment about his secretary on his shoulders with her genitals near his face. The report said he accused one of the other secretaries of making up the story to appease another person whose name was redacted.

Patch has since learned he was talking about the secretary’s husband.

Endres also said some of the secretaries were no longer county employees and therefore had no obligation to be honest, the report said.

He confirmed the walk to the County Advocacy Center and being with the sexual assault investigator but denied using the term “girls.” He admitted to saying something about everyone who worked there being attractive. Endres said he was surprised the investigator would tell anyone about the comment, calling it “meaningless,” and he would have gone to the meeting even if there were unattractive people there, Freeman wrote.

Endress did not recall his secretary commenting about the heat and denied calling her or any other secretary “hot” or “attractive.”

He acknowledged talking to his secretary about honesty and another issue redacted from the report.

Endres did not recall the text message from Feb. 14, 2025, that started the entire investigation but admitted he had been drinking that evening, the report said. He did not deny sending the text message.

Regarding the “this too shall pass” comment, Endres denied the post was retaliatory and said he was sharing his experience facing several challenges, including in his professional life.

Freeman’s Findings

The investigator delivered the report on March 31, 2025, and across several pages and 14 points, she found the women’s testimony and concerns credible — including the which way comment about the motorcycle and the attractive whisper comment. She also gave credit to Endres on the “DTF” reference and the pineapple sticker issue.

On March 7, County Administrator Ross Cunningham wrote to Endres. That letter is not included in the investigation findings. But a 15-page response by Endres was.

In the response, Endres explained he had taken several trips around the country for the FBI on digital forensics, including one trip to the location where his former secretary lived. He also claimed Cunningham exceeded his legal authority to undertake an investigation of the comments. Endres also said he had incorrectly stated his former secretary’s name and noted she was young enough to be his child.

Endres’ Firing

On April 4, 2025, Halvorsen terminated Endres’ employment with the county attorney’s office after reviewing the investigator’s report.

“In reaching my decision,” he wrote, “I have relied on information presented to the investigator by witnesses who reported direct knowledge of your workplace conduct… I have determined that your conduct… is detrimental to the immediate and ongoing operation of the office of Merrimack County Attorney and is therefore conduct I cannot condone or tolerate.”

Endres Responses To Patch

Patch sent Endres several questions about the report that led to his firing.

When asked if he was given a warning from Halvorsen, since the officer manager denied speaking to him, but the report said he made a comment about not texting people outside of work, he said he had “no recollection” of the comment. He also said he was given no warnings. Endres said he was told about the investigation on Feb. 19, 2025, “but not told what I was accused of doing or the nature of my misconduct.” After contacting the county, he learned it had hired an investigator, so he filed a 91-a request for the allegations against him, which was denied. After going to the state’s 91-a ombudsman, he said the county provided the documents to him.

Endres said his secretary gave him her personal number.

He did recall some discussion with the secretaries about texting. He said most of the attorneys have work phones, but administrators did not.

“I know the report says that I gave her my personal cell phone number, but that is not accurate,” he said. “It also says that ‘shortly thereafter, he began texting things of a personal nature,’ which is also not accurate.”

Endres said he texted her for the first time after learning she was leaving the department, while he was out of state in the spring of 2024. He confirmed he texted her after she left the job and she generally responded.

Up until the investigation, Endres said he received positive evaluations, including one in December 2024. He was awarded a double merit step increase, which maxed out his pay scale, he said.

Endres did not recall exactly when he changed his registration from Republican to Democrat after voting Republican for many years, but he said it was after being fired. He supported Halvorsen in 2018 when he lost and in 2020 when he was elected. Before that election, he said “certain individuals” approached him and asked him to run for county attorney as a Democrat, but he did not want to challenge someone he knew as a friend and had worked with for decades.

“However,” he said, “being fired made me realize that my loyalty and friendship (were) clearly misplaced, clearing the path for me to run for county attorney. I also know that Attorney Halvorsen was aware that I was running for county attorney at the time he announced he would not be seeking re-election.”

When asked, in hindsight, whether it was appropriate to make some of his comments, especially to women so much younger than he is, Endres said no one ever told him he was making anyone uncomfortable.

“To the extent I made a comment which made anyone uncomfortable, I wish someone would have let me know, or even reacted in a way which conveyed the message that they were uncomfortable, so that I could have apologized and made sure not to do it again,” he said.

When asked, if elected, how his leadership might differ toward women he would hire or keep on, he called the question odd because he did not believe leadership should differ between women and men.

“In a workplace, I expect everyone to be competent and do their respective job, regardless of gender or age,” Endres said. “I have certainly learned a great deal from the experience I had at the Merrimack County Attorney's Office regarding boundaries, friendship, trust, how others view me, and how I should interact with my co-workers.”

The city of Concord, Endres’ previous employer when he worked for the prosecutor’s office, had no record of any investigation or disciplinary actions against him during his time there.

Halvorsen declined to comment for this story because it is a personnel matter.

A background check of Meghan Hagaman, Endres’ Republican opponent, found no investigations or disciplinary actions at either the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office, where she has worked for two stints, or the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

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