GOFFSTOWN — Whether Weare Police Chief Gregory Begin is guilty of violating an election law is still up in the air, but a court hearing Thursday on a motion by his attorney to dismiss his court case shed new light on the incident that led to the charge.

In March 2011, during the town elections, Begin, who was running for re-election, allegedly violated election laws by going behind the “guardrail,” the area of the polling place where only voters and election workers are supposed to go. The attorney general's office investigated a complaint lodged by a resident against the chief. In May of this year, Begin was officially charged with the violation-level offense.

Last month, when asked about the charge, Begin said that the reason he went behind the guardrail was to assist an elderly man who wanted to vote get from his car to the polls.

“I helped a handicapped gentleman through the back door and over to the polls,” said Begin. “For that, I have been charged with a technical violation of the polling laws almost a year after the violation took place.”

However, at a hearing at the 9th Circuit Court Goffstown Division on Thursday to consider the motion to dismiss the case made by Begin's attorney, Anthony Soltani, Town Moderator Jerry Little testified to a different version of the story.

According to Little, a woman came to the check-in desk on voting day asking if she could bring a ballot out to the car for her husband who is disabled and was having difficulty getting to the polls. Little said that he refused the woman a ballot, as state law dictates, but said that if the couple would come to the side door, he would help the man to the polls.

The couple did as they were asked and Little went out to escort the man, whom he said was “a fairly small, elderly gentleman,” into the building. At that point, he said, Begin left the area outside where campaigners and candidates were asked to stand, and jumped in to help Little and the man into the building.

Little said he told the chief that he had the situation under control, but the chief continued to help the man to the polls and waited while the man voted — a process that took 10 to 15 minutes and required the man's wife to be brought in. Little said that despite the fact that no one but election workers and people in the process of voting were supposed to be behind the guardrail, he didn't order the chief to leave as he would have done with other residents.

“He's the chief,” Little said.

Resident William Tobey, who also testified at the hearing, said he saw the police chief standing behind the guardrail when he went in to vote and felt something wasn't right about a candidate standing so close to the polls. When he got home, he looked up the election laws and filed a complaint with the attorney general's office.

Soltani argued that the charge against Begin was filed by the attorney general's office after the statute of limitations had run out. In New Hampshire, the state has 90 days to file this type of complaint and the state didn't charge Begin until more than a year after the incident.

Associate Attorney General Richard Head said that the statute provides an exemption in the case of public officials who commit offenses while serving in their official capacity. What Judge Edward Gordon has to decide is whether Begin was acting in his capacity as a police chief when he was at the polls and helped Little assist the elderly gentleman, or if he was just acting as an ordinary citizen.

Head argued that Little never would have let Begin behind the guardrail had he been acting as a citizen, and Little said that he's been told he's a bit too strict about blocking residents from “visiting” in the polling area.

“He is always the police chief — off duty or on duty,” said Head. “He's a citizen, but he's always the chief, and the chief caused this confusion when he stepped inside the guardrail.”

But Soltani argued that Begin was at the polls as a “citizen/candidate” and “was not the chief of police doing his duty.”

“He can shed the scales of being a police officer for that day,” Soltani said.

nfoster@newstote.com