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CRIME

Woman sentenced in drug death of local teacher

Matton receives prison term of 15 to 40 years

Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com
Amy Matton exits the Portsmouth Circuit Court in 2016. Matton was sentenced Thursday to 15 to 40 years in prison for the drug death of Dover teacher Bryant Lausberg. [Rich Beauchesne/Seacoastonline, file]

PORTSMOUTH — Amy Matton, formerly of Portsmouth, was sentenced Thursday to 15 to 40 years in prison for the drug death of local teacher Bryant Lausberg.

Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati told the Portsmouth Herald the sentence was the result of a plea agreement, which had Matton plead guilty to causing Lausberg's death on May 29, 2016. Matton, 37, who last lived in Portsmouth’s Gosling Meadows public housing neighborhood, was charged with “multiple sales of methadone, one of which caused the death of Bryant Lausberg," according to the attorney general's office. Lausberg was 27 and living in Dover at the time of his death.

Agati said Thursday that Matton also pleaded guilty to four drug-sales charges for crimes committed in the Portsmouth area and three charges for possession of drugs in her apartment. He said sentencing for some of those convictions are concurrent to the conviction for causing Lausberg's death and the others will run consecutive, but were suspended. Following her release from prison, Matton will be under the supervision of a parole officer, he said.

Matton's pleas included her admission to selling "cocaine, amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, methadone and morphine to additional people," according to the attorney general's office.

"On Sunday, May 29, 2016, Mr. Lausberg sent Ms. Matton a text to buy methadone pills," the attorney general's office announced. "He drove to Portsmouth around 2 p.m., walked into her apartment and minutes later he walked out with six methadone pills. Approximately three hours later, Bryant’s girlfriend came home to find him deceased."

Prosecutors said Lausberg's and Matton’s phone records, video surveillance and Matton’s own statements led to her convictions.

"Additionally, continued investigation revealed that Ms. Matton continued to sell illicit narcotics after becoming aware that the sale resulted in Mr. Lausberg’s death," the attorney general's office said.

Agati said the judge took that into consideration when sentencing Matton for the drug death. He said the plea agreement was made with input from Lausberg's family.

Matton on Nov. 21 appeared in Rockingham County Superior Court where she filed a motion to dismiss the charge for causing Lausberg's death. Represented by two attorneys, she argued a reasonable person could not foresee that the methadone she sold would be fatal.

Judge David Anderson called her argument “a fairly radical position,” without supporting case law. He noted methadone is an opioid and has “fallen out of favor” for treating drug addiction because “it becomes a new addiction.”

Agati said the judge had not yet ruled on the motion to dismiss prior to Matton's plea and sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Prosecutors said the conviction "came about from a joint investigation and collaboration by the Dover Police Department, the Portsmouth Police Department, the DEA Tactical Diversion Squad, and the Rockingham County Attorney’s Office with the assistance of the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s Drug Prosecution Unit."

Lausberg was a physical education and health teacher at Rollinsford Grade School and a former coach of the Marshwood High School baseball and Somersworth/Coe-Brown hockey teams. He was a three-sport All-State athlete at Somersworth High School, graduating in 2007.

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