Belmont Resident Arrested In NH For Voting Twice In 2016 General Election

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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.

Suffolk DA: Belmont Teen Arraigned Tuesday on Gun Charges

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The Belmont teenager arrested on firearm charges in Boston on Saturday morning was arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court on Tuesday, Feb. 24, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. 

Kenneth Madden, described by Conley as “a high school student from Belmont” was charged before Judge David Weingarten on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a large capacity feeding device, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, and trespassing. 

According to a press release from Conley’s office, Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Fitzgerald requested bail of $25,000 and that Madden wears a GPS tracking devise, abide by a curfew and stay away from Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood if he is released from custody. Weingarten set bail at $7,500 and imposed the three conditions of release.

Fitzgerald told the court that members of the Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force observed approximately 15 to 20 people running from Brook Avenue onto Dudley Street shortly before 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. Witnesses told officers a man running from the scene was carrying a firearm and he provided police with the suspect’s description. 

Conley’s office said the officers continued on Dudley Street in the direction of Columbia Road where the group had fled and observed a man matching the description, later identified as Madden, walk into an alley along with approximately 10 other young men. 

The officers pulled the cruiser into the alley and observed Madden standing near the driver’s door of a Mercury Grand Marquis.  Upon seeing the cruiser, Madden ducked down behind the vehicle’s door then reappeared and closed the door. Officers observed that members of the group appeared to be bruised and bleeding, as though they had just been in a fight.

Out of concern for their safety, officers pat frisked Madden and five others standing around the car’s other open doors before discovering a firearm tucked partially under the vehicle’s driver’s seat where Madden briefly ducked out of sight. The firearm, a Sig Sauer 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, contained 12 rounds of ammunition in a high-capacity magazine and had an obliterated serial number, according to the press release. 

Madden was placed under arrest, while the other members of the group were released.

Madden will appear in the Suffolk County Gun Court on March 23.