DOVER, N.H.—Former congressional candidate Gary Dodds will stay in jail, possibly after he is eligible to be released this weekend and monitored in home confinement.
"Mr. Dodds will remain in the custody of the Strafford County Department of Corrections until such a time as I am satisfied that he can be safely (his own safety and that of the public) monitored in the community," Strafford County Jail Superintendent Warren Dowaliby said in a statement Thursday.
He did not elaborate.
Dodds was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted in February of faking a disappearance after a car crash to boost his lackluster campaign. He was ordered to serve 20 days, then be eligible for home confinement. Dodds was free while appealing, but the 20-day sentence was imposed this month after he was charged with assaulting his wife.
Thursday's jail announcement came a day after Dodds was taken to the hospital. County officials characterized him as "unresponsive" and said he refused to speak with jail officers. They say he was found to be in good health, but also refused to speak with doctors.
County Attorney Tom Velardi said he was not sure what prompted Dodds' behavior, but referred to the disappearance case, saying there were times he was unresponsive to emergency personnel who found him in woods.
"In their opinion, he would pick and choose when and where he would do that," Velardi said. "When asked a question he didn't want to answer, he'd shut his eyes and stop speaking. There is a demonstrated and proven history of Mr. Dodds faking certain medical or psychological maladies."
Dodds' lawyers said he also would not communicate with them on Wednesday.
In the disappearance case, Dodds was convicted of falsifying evidence, leaving the scene of the crash and causing a false public alarm.
Velardi said it was up to Dowaliby whether Dodds would serve the remainder in jail or at home. Velardi was pushing for jail.
"I believe this office has done everything possible to show there are no conditions that would endure Mr. Dodds' good behavior on his release," he said.
On Monday, Superior Court Judge Steven Houran imposed the 12-month sentence from Dodds' disappearance conviction after finding that Dodds violated his bail condition in the assault incident. Dodds is accused of threatening his wife and forcing her to go to the hospital for a mental evaluation by grabbing control of her steering wheel while they were driving in Portsmouth.
Dodds also was arrested in May after his wife reported that he had moved out of their Rye home, had been acting erratically and had thrown her to the floor during an argument.
