Jurors find Berlin greenhouse CEO guilty of voter fraud

Defense attorney Michael Connolly (foreground) confers with his client, businessman Richard H. Rosen during a recess May 23 in Grafton County Superior Court in North Haverhill. Rosen was charged with voting in two different states in the Nov. 8, 2016, general election. (Photo by Lisa D. Connell)

Grafton County Superior Court jurors found the CEO of American Ag Energy, the company under which Berlin-based North Country Growers operates, guilty of voting in two states for the Nov. 8, 2016, general election.

Outside of the courtroom after the verdict was announced, Richard H. Rosen, the CEO, told a reporter that the outcome would not affect work at North Country Growers.

At its 170-acre site purchased from the city of Berlin in January 2021, as noted on americanagenergy.com, salad greens are growing in greenhouses able to withstand winter and summer temperature changes. Production is ongoing at the site with more fresh salad greens planned for wholesale distribution along the East Coast.

The three-day trial began May 22 and was heard by 13 jurors, which includes one alternate juror, with Judge Peter H. Bornstein presiding. Shortly before 4:30 p.m. May 24, the jurors returned their verdict. Eight women and five men comprised the jurors.

On Thursday, May 23, out of the jury’s presence, Rosen’s defense attorney, Michael Connolly, asked the judge to set aside the verdict depending on its outcome and rule on the case. Connolly told Bornstein the motion for a directed verdict was based on insufficiency of evidence. State prosecutors Senior Assistant Attorney General Myles Matteson and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Conley did not object to Connolly’s request.

The defense and prosecutors will submit their respective motions in June regarding the defense motion to set the jury’s verdict aside and have Bornstein issue a directed verdict. The judge can still accept the jury’s verdict and if so, will sentence Rosen. As such, a sentencing date in July will be set.

Rosen was indicted in 2022 on the Class B felony charge of voting in more than one state, as specified in RSA 659:34-a. Under statute, a Class B felony is punishable by 3½ to 7 years in prison plus a monetary fine. Additionally, per the New Hampshire Constitution, anyone convicted of a willful violation of the state’s election laws shall lose the right to vote in the state.

Attorney General John Formella in December 2022 reported Rosen’s arrest on the charge.

Formella brought the charges of voter fraud against Rosen for voting in the general election of Nov. 8, 2016, in two different states and towns — Belmont, Mass., and Holderness. Rosen owns a home in each location.

Richard Tracy, the chief investigator assigned to the election law unit in the N.H. Attorney General’s office, testified on the trial’s second day about the surfacing of the voting discrepancies.

Tracy said in 2016, the N.H. Legislature voted to participate in Crosscheck, a program that reviews voter ballot-casting duplication among participating states. Tracy said 29 other states participated in Crosscheck to review the names of people voting on Nov. 8, 2016, if they appeared in more than one participating state’s list. If a name appeared more than once among different states, it was compiled into a list. Rosen’s name appeared in Massachusetts and New Hampshire as someone who voted in the November 2016 general election.

Tracy said his research into Rosen, one of 61 names on the New Hampshire list for the 2016 election, began in June 2020. Tracy called Rosen and met him at his home in Holderness on a three-season porch. This was near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines had not yet emerged. Rosen at the time was in his early 80s.

Tracy said he let Rosen know the nature of the call — that he was investigating Rosen’s 2016 voting. The investigator said he asked Rosen where he intended to vote in the November 2020 general election.

Tracy said he spoke with recently retired Holderness Town Clerk/Tax Collector Ellen King by phone around the time of his meeting with Rosen. King said Rosen had called her and asked her to remove his name from the 2020 voter checklist. Rosen expected to be in Massachusetts at that time.

“He indicated he voted in both states,” depending on where he was living at the time, Tracy said of Rosen after their interview.

“He also clarified he only votes in one location per election,” Tracy testified.

Testimony included that of Belmont, Mass., Town Clerk Ellen Cushman on the trial’s first day, followed by King on the second day.

The 2016 election featured a presidential election, a race for the U.S. Senate, U.S. representative, New Hampshire governor, Executive Council and state Senate and representative.

During court testimony, jurors learned King told the court Rosen in 2016 requested an absentee ballot from King and said that he would need assistance voting. Rosen is legally blind, is wheelchair-bound and has a personal driver who takes him from place to place. King said she knew Rosen from his voting in Holderness in earlier elections. Rosen returned his absentee ballot, King said.

Trial testimony turned to Belmont, Mass., where its registered voters cast ballots at the town’s library. Defense attorney Connolly said Belmont poll workers could not recall seeing Rosen cast a ballot on Nov. 8, 2016, nor could they recall what he looked like.

Connolly asked investigator Tracy if he had tried to track Rosen’s whereabouts by credit card purchases or anything to prove his location in the 2016 election. Tracy said no.

While not mentioned during the trail, Rosen said in an interview outside the courtroom that he believes that a man posed as him in Belmont, Mass., to vote in the 2016 general election.

In Massachusetts, voters do not show a picture ID when they check in; they are asked for their street address by a poll worker. In New Hampshire, a picture ID is required. Rosen said it is Massachusetts’ lax voting system that contributed to the problem of a pencil mark by his name as having voted in Belmont, Mass., in the 2016 general election.

In his closing remarks to the jury, prosecutor Mattson said Rosen knew all along that he voted in two different states in the same general election.

“He chose to vote in two places, impacting two communities,” Mattson said.

Formella thanked those involved in proving the state’s case.

“I extend my sincere thanks to the trial team and election officials in both Holderness, New Hampshire, and Belmont, Massachusetts, for their assistance and cooperation in the investigation and securing this conviction,” Formella said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will continue to hold accountable those individuals who commit voter fraud and attempt to take advantage of our election systems.”

Connolly did not have a comment after the verdict was returned. As Conley stood alongside Mattson, Mattson said he thanked the jury for their service.

The Crosscheck program is no longer used due to challenges from other states and adverse publicity. It originated in the Midwestern state of Kansas.

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