Photo: Richard Rosen’s arrest photo

A Belmont resident was arrested by New Hampshire law enforcement Friday, Dec. 2 for allegedly voting in both Belmont and New Hampshire in the 2016 general election.

In a press release dated Dec. 2, NH Attorney General John Formella said, Richard Rosen, 83, of Washington Street, Belmont, and Route 175, Holderness, N.H., was indicted on one felony count of wrongful voting related to voting twice in that election, a class B felony. Rosen is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 21 in Plymouth Circuit Court.

“Mr. Rosen knowingly checked in at the checklist at the Belmont, Mass., polling place and cast a Massachusetts ballot after having already cast an absentee ballot in the same election in Holderness, N.H.,” Formella said in a separate presser.

Formella said a Class B felony charges carry a penalty range of 3½ to seven years in prison and a fine of up $2,000. Additionally, pursuant to the New Hampshire constitution, anyone convicted of a willful violation of the state’s election laws will lose the right to vote in the state.

Since 2009, Rosen has been the CEO of Belmont-based American Ag Energy and through a subsidiary has been working since 2017 to build a high tech commercial greenhouse complex in Berlin, NH. He hopes to grow eight million pounds of tomatoes and 15 million heads of lettuce annually while creating 80 jobs. The firm is attempting to build a second greenhouse complex in Rhode Island.

Rosen, who earned a Ph.D in Engineering and Forest Science and Ecology from Harvard in 1974, purchased his Washington Street home in 1975 which is currently under his wife’s name. In 2010, Rosen ran for one of two open seats on the Belmont School Committee. He finished fourth behind Laurie Slap and Dan Scharfman.