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Buckley Pleads Ignorance in Defamation Lawsuit; Judge Lets Case Proceed

New Hampshire Democrat Party chair Ray Buckley signed off on a hit piece political mailer six years ago, but a judge ruled he can still be dragged into court over it today.

Buckley’s lawyers tried to get him off the hook for a mailer that may have contained defamatory language targeting a Bedford Republican by claiming Buckley was not involved in creating the political propaganda.

The judge didn’t buy it.

“[Former NHPD staffer Nick] Taylor stated ‘that everything that goes out from the New Hampshire Democratic Party is reviewed by . . . Buckley,’” Hillsborough Superior Court — North Judge David Anderson noted in his ruling released Wednesday.

The mailers featured Buckley’s signature and the disclaimer, “Paid for by NH Democratic Party. Ray Buckley, Chair. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

Anderson rejected the attempt by Buckley’s lawyers to have him dismissed as a defendant, ruling that jurors will make the call at trial. The NHDP did not respond to a request for comment.

During the 2018 state Senate race, 6,000 pieces of election mail were sent by the Democratic Party targeting then-state Rep. Dan Hynes. The mailers featured a photo of Hynes doctored to look like a police mug shot and alerted voters of his 2008 criminal conviction for theft by extortion.

The mailer also claimed Hynes had been disbarred as an attorney as a result of the conviction.

“THE WRONG KIND OF CONVICTIONS. [Hynes] targeted woman-owned businesses for extortion. [He] was charged by Republican Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, convicted by the state of New Hampshire for ‘theft by extortion’ and disbarred,” the mailer states.

Except Hynes wasn’t disbarred. Buckley and the NHDP got that wrong. (Hynes did have his law license suspended for one year, however).

Hynes says the Democrats got the “conviction” claim wrong, too, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court agrees. Hynes’ extortion conviction was annulled after he satisfied his sentence and repaid his victims, wiping it off the record.

“The effect of New Hampshire’s annulment statute is to, as a matter of law, render the arrest, conviction, or sentence void for the purposes of public discourse,” the Supreme Court ruled. “The fact that the plaintiff was convicted undeniably exists, but as a matter of New Hampshire law, upon annulment, it is false and misleading to fail to state that the conviction was annulled.”

The mailer makes no mention of Hynes’ annulment, though it includes a link to a news article that informs readers of the facts.

In his deposition, Taylor indicated he read the article and believed the statement about the annulment was true. But the annulment was never directly mentioned on the mailer. Taylor further said that at the time he was not sure about the difference between a lawyer being suspended or a lawyer being disbarred, according to Anderson’s ruling.

Hynes first brought his lawsuit against Buckley and the party after his 2018 loss, but it was dismissed. It was revived after Hynes won his appeal at the Supreme Court. 

Buckley is known for his abrasive persona, and is often accused by political opponents of taking cheap shots. For example, just days ago he retweeted a post about the Jan. 6, 2001 U.S. Capitol riot that featured a photo of Donald Trump taking a selfie with Manchester police officers.

“Trump’s ‘gala’ honoring Jan. 6 rioters may violate his terms of release,” read the caption.

In fact, the photo was from a 2016 Wall Street Journal article about Trump campaigning in the Queen City.

The Manchester Police Department declined to comment about the post.

The outcome of Hynes’s lawsuit is far from certain.

Anderson ruled Buckley and the Democrats can use the defense at trial that Hynes is “libel-proof.” That is the legal doctrine that a person with an already poor public reputation can’t be have their reputation further downgraded by libel.

Hynes was the Republican representative for Bedford until his surprise resignation in February. It’s since been learned Hynes moved out of the district late last year and rented out his house, but continued to claim his Bedford home as his residence. 

Disbarred Dem Lawyer Arrested on Fraud Charges

A Democratic lawyer who once had dreams of elected office is facing prison time for allegedly stealing money from a disabled client and then doctoring evidence.

He’s the second New Hampshire Democrat to be hit with news of potential jail time in the past 24 hours.

Police arrested Justin P. Nadeau Wednesday on charges of theft by deception, forgery, multiple counts of falsifying physical evidence, and financial exploitation of an elderly, disabled, or impaired adult.

The charges stem from information that came out during Nadeau’s ethics case before the state Professional Conduct Committee. Nadeau was ultimately disbarred after he was allegedly caught falsifying evidence during the PCC investigation.

“It’s difficult for me to imagine something worse for a lawyer to do,” one PCC member said, according to the court records.

Nadeau went before the PCC after he allegedly got a client who was impaired by a traumatic brain injury, Exeter woman Shawn Fahey, to give him close to $300,000 in loans in 2018. Nadeau allegedly secured the loans with a condo he did not own, and the anticipated proceeds from a pending defamation lawsuit he had against the Portsmouth Police Department.

Nadeau allegedly told Fahey that until the defamation lawsuit was resolved he was “strapped for cash.”

It was a tough 24 hours for New Hampshire Democrats.

Portsmouth’s Nadeau was the Democratic nominee in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District in 2004, losing to incumbent Republican Jeb Bradley by nearly 30 points. 

Nadeau’s defamation lawsuit against the Portsmouth police arose from an arrest of Portsmouth man Christian Jennings. Jennings was allegedly found with quantities of marijuana, Ecstasy, amphetamines, a loaded gun, and $42,000 in cash. According to police, Nadeau was handling an $85,000 marina investment for Jennings before the arrest, though the marina deal never closed. Nadeau brought the lawsuit when police opened an investigation into whether or not he was laundering drug money. The defamation case was settled in 2019.

Nadeau also allegedly hid the $165,000 he collected after he sent Fahey to a Massachusetts attorney to handle her injury case, according to the PCC investigation. Nadeau reportedly collected referral fees from the Massachusetts attorney as well as other money related to Fahey’s case.

Nadeau slow-walked producing documents related to the case for the PCC. The Democrat even destroyed his computer before the hearing, according to court records. Nadeau claims he made all the appropriate conflict of interest disclosures and eventually produced printed copies of the letter he claimed he sent her.

However, James Berriman, the computer expert hired by the PCC, looked through Nadeau’s office server and found the dates on the documents Nadeau gave to the committee were fake, and the documents were created well after he took the money from Fahey.

“As a member of the PCC observed at oral argument before the PCC, ‘the Berriman Report and the spoliation of evidence, in my mind . . . is one of the most significant violations I have seen in decades of practice before the ADO before joining this committee,’” a New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling states.

Nadeau appealed his disbarment, but the Supreme Court ruled in April that he crossed too many lines to be let back into court, at least not as an attorney.

Nadeau is due in Rockingham County Circuit Court in Portsmouth for an arraignment on Sept. 9.