Daniel Ouellet denied coercion after a woman described threats, armed travel and injuries to Newington police.
NEWINGTON, N.H. — Daniel Ouellet told police he was a safe man protecting his wife from a cult dispute. The woman ran crying toward arriving officers and said he had threatened her family, taken her phone and forced her to marry him at gunpoint.
Those opposing accounts became the center of a multistate investigation after Ouellet’s June 6 arrest at an Olive Garden. Police said physical marks, objects found in a vehicle, phone information and marriage records could help test what happened. Ouellet, 47, denied the allegations at his first court appearance and was held under preventive detention.
Ouellet’s version began with an ordinary explanation for being at the restaurant. He told Newington officers that he and the woman had gone there to eat and described her as his wife. Her tears, he said, came from pressure by her mother, who was allegedly trying to force her into a religious cult in Pennsylvania. According to the arrest affidavit, he identified that group as “the Stars and the Free Masons.” He said the couple had married June 1 and called himself a “really safe guy.” Police then told him he could not speak with the woman while they conducted the welfare check. Officers said he became nervous. When they asked why the pair had moved among different locations rather than staying at his trailer, they said his answers did not remain consistent.
The woman’s version started with a threat. She told police that Ouellet contacted her more than a week before the arrest and warned that he would travel to Pennsylvania and hurt her relatives if she did not come to New Hampshire. Police have not disclosed how long they had known each other or what led to the contact. She said she made the trip because of the threat. Once she arrived, she told officers, Ouellet showed a .45-caliber handgun, put it in his pocket and said they were going to Lee Town Hall to get married. If she refused, she said he warned that he would “make her pay.” She also accused him of taking her phone, giving him control over her communications while she remained away from home.
The two stories intersected at the Olive Garden because the phone still carried a traceable location. The woman’s mother located the device at the Newington restaurant and contacted Pennsylvania State Police. That agency asked local officers in New Hampshire to check on her. Cruisers arrived shortly before 11:30 a.m. The woman saw them and ran outside crying, according to police. Officers reported what appeared to be cigarette burns on her legs and later documented her request for an emergency protective order. Police have not said whether the phone was in her possession at that moment or remained with Ouellet. They also have not explained what led the mother to begin tracking it, how long she had watched the location or whether she had received any messages from her daughter.
The alleged June 1 marriage offers one set of records investigators can examine. The woman said Ouellet took her to the town hall in Lee and forced her to go through the process under threat of a gun. A marriage license, clerk’s notes, identification documents, payment records and any available video could show when the pair arrived and who dealt with them. Such records would not resolve the issue of consent by themselves. The woman’s central allegation is that she completed the ceremony because she feared Ouellet would harm her or her family. Authorities have not released the certificate or named the official who conducted the ceremony. They also have not said whether anyone at the building observed unusual behavior.
After the ceremony, the woman said, she stayed with Ouellet in a trailer at a Lee campground through June 5. That location gives investigators another possible source of evidence. Police could compare campground records, witness observations and any video with the dates in her statement. They could also examine the trailer for weapons, property belonging to the woman or signs that she had been prevented from leaving. Initial public reports did not describe the results of a trailer search. The investigation did produce a shelter-in-place order in Lee after authorities learned that Ouellet had access to weapons, local reports said. The warning was lifted after he was taken into custody in Portsmouth. Officials did not initially give a complete account of why officers believed the wider public might be at risk.
The woman said the pair left the campground and spent June 5 traveling. She told investigators that she drove through New Hampshire and into Maine while Ouellet sat in the passenger seat with a loaded handgun directed at her. He allegedly said religious cults were following them. The route has not been made public. Phone-location records, toll data, fuel purchases, store receipts and road cameras could establish where the vehicle traveled, though police have not said which of those materials they obtained. The allegation that Ouellet held a gun on the woman while she drove could produce charges in any jurisdiction where the conduct occurred. Establishing those locations would therefore influence not only the evidence but also which agency files a case.
The most recent alleged injury occurred on the morning police arrived. The woman said Ouellet cut her hand with a box cutter during what she described as a “satanic ritual.” Officers later reported finding a copy of “The Satanic Bible,” a sweatshirt and a bag in Ouellet’s vehicle. A book is lawful property and does not prove that a ritual or assault occurred. Its possible evidentiary role depends on whether it supports specific details of the woman’s statement when considered with other material. Reports did not say whether officers found the box cutter she described. They also did not report recovering the .45-caliber handgun, although concern about weapons became part of the broader police response.
The restaurant scene supplied police with observations that did not depend entirely on either person’s narrative. Officers saw the woman run toward them. They described her as crying and reported apparent burns on her legs. They could compare those injuries with her timeline, seek medical findings and photograph the marks. They could also observe Ouellet’s reactions and preserve his statements. None of those facts alone establishes every allegation. Together, they formed part of the probable-cause review that led to his arrest on an accusation that he used a deadly weapon to stop someone from reporting a crime or injury. Reports also identified domestic violence and deadly-weapon allegations among the charges associated with the case.
At his June 8 video hearing, Ouellet offered the first public defense of his conduct. “If you talk to anybody that knows me, I’m not a physical man,” he said. He called forced marriage contrary to his religious belief and said he supported free will. He then denied being aggressive in the ways described in the court paperwork. His comments did not amount to a judicial finding or sworn trial testimony. At an early hearing, a judge generally considers matters such as detention and the legal basis for keeping a defendant in custody. Prosecutors still must prove filed charges beyond a reasonable doubt, and Ouellet may contest the woman’s statements, police searches and interpretation of the seized objects.
Police Chief Michael Bilodeau said more charges were likely. That possibility reflects the number of separate acts under review. One allegation concerns the threat used to bring the woman from Pennsylvania. Another concerns the marriage in Lee. Others involve the phone, the trailer, the gun during travel, the cutting of her hand and any effort to stop her from contacting police. Each possible count would require prosecutors to identify an applicable law, establish where the act occurred and connect it to reliable evidence. Newington police handled the restaurant encounter and arrest, while Lee authorities were expected to review events within their town. Pennsylvania and Maine agencies could also supply records or investigative help.
The setting adds useful context to how quickly the welfare check unfolded. Newington has only about 800 year-round residents, but its retail and industrial district receives thousands of shoppers and workers. The Olive Garden sits in an area served by major roads near Portsmouth, the Maine border and the Pease Tradeport. A public restaurant allowed the mother to give police a recognizable location and gave officers room to separate the two people. It also created potential witnesses and video sources that would not have existed along a rural road or inside a campground trailer. Authorities have not said whether restaurant surveillance was collected.
The woman received an emergency protective order while Ouellet was taken to the Rockingham County Department of Corrections. No guilt had been determined, and early reports did not provide a date for trial. The case’s next phase depended on whether investigators could turn two sharply different stories into a documented sequence supported by phone data, official records, medical findings, seized evidence and witnesses from the places the pair visited.
Author note: Last updated July 11, 2026.