Pending charges against a Concord police officer accused of assaulting two people while on duty in 2023 have been dropped by prosecutors, court records show.

The officer, Richard Cobb, 41, had been set to stand trial next month in the case, which involved two counts of simple assault.

Cobb, who had been on unpaid leave from the Concord Police Department since May 2023, was acquitted by a Merrimack County jury last month in a separate, but similar, assault case.

“Richard and I were pleased in the first trial with the jury’s consideration and obviously we’re pleased with the Attorney General’s decision not to proceed with the second matter,” Cobb’s attorney, Eric Wilson, said in a statement.

Both incidents – which occurred six days apart in the spring of 2023 –involved Cobb taking people to the ground while attempting to place them in custody, according to testimony from the January trial and an affidavit filed by Cobb.

In the case in which charges were dropped last week, Cobb wrote that he responded to a car accident reported on Iron Works Road. When he arrived, he found a woman moving an item from a rolled-over vehicle, he wrote.

Cobb asked the woman to stop but she refused. He ultimately “leg swept [her] to the ground,” he wrote.

Cobb wrote that another woman also “put her hands” on him and he “moved [her] aside with the use of an arm bar.”

A spokesperson at the attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment about why prosecutors ultimately decided to drop charges against Cobb or if the acquittal in the other case played a role in the decision.

In that case, Cobb was accused of conducting a leg sweep on a drunk homeless man outside of the Storrs Street Sal’s Pizza after Cobb said the man resisted being placed in handcuffs. Wilson argued that Cobb was legally justified in his use of force.

As part of the agreement to drop the pending charges, Cobb agreed to “be of good behavior” for the next two years.

A Concord Police Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the officer’s current employment status. Cobb started working in the department in 2017, according to city records.

Cobb currently resides in Arizona, according to court documents.

 

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.