Judge tosses bid-rigging charges against second auctioneer

A judge dismissed charges alleging auctioneer Stephen Bennett rigged the bidding for a nautical painting because, she wrote, the attorney general’s office has exclusive authority to prosecute the case.

Bennett, of 171 Aldrich Road, was charged with three misdemeanor counts of collusive bidding and a single misdemeanor alleging conspiracy. Police alleged he conspired with auctioneer Harold French to rig the bidding for an S.F.M. Badger oil painting during a Dec. 10, 2009 auction at the Frank Jones Center.

French was alleged to have placed a false bid to drive up the bidding for the painting so Bennett could collect a 20-percent commission he’d only receive if the painting sold for more than $10,000.

Judge Sawako Gardner dismissed the charges in an order highlighting state law which grants exclusive authority to the attorney general to prosecute those kinds of cases.

“If the legislature intended to allow sharing of responsibilities, the statue would so provide,” the judge wrote in her Dec. 12 decision.

Through public relations consultant Hugh Drummond, Bennett said, “I am pleased with the court’s ruling. It is now time to put this behind us and begin putting our lives and business back together.”

According to the Portsmouth circuit court clerk’s office, charges alleging Bennett assaulted and imprisoned the painting’s owner remain pending.

Last month, Judge Gardner dismissed charges alleging French, of Warner, committed the crimes of collusive bidding and conspiracy. The judge noted authority lies with the attorney general while dismissing those charges as well.

Police Capt. Corey MacDonald said his office received a letter from the attorney general’s office in October which delegated authority for prosecuting the case to the local police department. The judge’s November order called that delegation of authority “insufficient.”

French’s attorney, Richard Lehmann, said his client has maintained his actions were legal for the two years the case was pending. In a written statement, French said he has “lived with this hanging over me for a long time.

“From the beginning, I have said that I never did anything that compromised the interest of either the seller of the painting or any member of the public,” he wrote. “I also did not believe that the Portsmouth police had the right to prosecute me. If the police had followed the law, all of this could have been avoided.”

During an August trial, Lehmann argued police failed to prove collusive bidding because the law allows one bid to be placed during the auction of an item with a reserve price. During the auction for the painting in dispute, there was a $10,000 reserve price and French bid $9,500 to “protect” that reserve, Lehmann said.

Prosecutor David Colby told the court an Internet listing for the auction advertised the painting as being without reserve. And in June, the N.H. Supreme Court concurred in a decision related to French’s appeal of a related reprimand by the state Board of Auctioneers.

The Supreme Court justices wrote the auction was advertised online as being without reserve and Bennett procured the bid from French, without the painting owner’s knowledge and “without notice to other bidders at the auction.” The Supreme Court upheld French’s reprimand and probation for, as the Board of Auctioneers found, submitting a fictitious bid at auction.