DOVER — A former congressional candidate convicted of faking his disappearance after a car crash two years ago was arrested yesterday after his wife reported that he threw her to the floor.
But the candidate's lawyer said the authorities are blowing some marital stress out of proportion and that his client was home when authorities were looking for him.
Gary Dodds was convicted in February of falsifying evidence, creating a false public alarm and leaving the scene of an April 2006 crash that prosecutors allege he staged to boost his faltering campaign.
He was sentenced to 20 days in jail and a year of home confinement but was out on bail pending an appeal when he was arrested yesterday morning outside Cutts Mansion, the apartment building he owns in Portsmouth and where he had his campaign office.
A judge had revoked Dodds' bail Monday afternoon based on reports from Dodds' wife that he assaulted her and that he had been acting irrationally. Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi said Dodds also had not been living consistently at his Rye home and recently was in Florida when he told the court he would be in New Orleans.
Cindy Dodds called police in Rye around 1 a.m. Monday to report that she and Dodds had argued while on vacation in Florida and that her husband had picked her up, thrown her to the ground, taken his bags and left.
She told police she wasn't hurt and didn't think her husband was a danger to himself or others, but she wanted officers to check whether Dodds had flown home.
According to Dodds' lawyer, the couple flew home to New Hampshire together Monday afternoon and that Dodds spent the night at home in Rye.
"We'll see about that," Velardi said, noting that Dodds was spotted Monday night running up the street near Cutts Mansion. "Everything with this man needs to be checked and double checked, and that's part of the problem."
The prosecutor said officers staked out Cutts Mansion for part of Monday night but wouldn't elaborate on other efforts to find Dodds, including whether police called or visited Dodds' Rye home.
According to the Rye police report, Cindy Dodds also said her husband had moved out of their home about a month ago and that the Florida trip "was to try to get things straight."
But one of Dodds' lawyers, Jay Nadeau, said he has not moved out.
"They both needed to have a little time, so he is still staying at home but occasionally he stays at another location, as well. He has not relinquished his home. He stayed there last night," said Nadeau, who argued that his client is being victimized.
He said the family has been under extreme stress since the crash and called the arrest Velardi's attempt to hurt Dodds' appeal and boost his own career.
"This is nothing more than marital stress that has been blown out of proportion," Nadeau said.
Velardi hotly defended his actions.
"I had a situation where I had an acute report of violence and I acted on it," he said. "I'll make no apologizes for that."
At his trial, Dodds claimed he hit his head when he crashed into a guardrail in Dover, then nearly drowned in a river before collapsing for 27 hours until he was rescued. He argued that police charged him to cover up bungled efforts to find him, but prosecutors accused him of spending part of the night outside, soaking his feet in cold water to make his story believable.
Yesterday, Dodds refused to obey orders from two Strafford County sheriff's deputies who were trying to arrest him, and officers had to pry a cell phone out of his hands, Velardi said.
Dodds was taken to the Strafford County jail pending a hearing Thursday to set new bail conditions. On the way, Velardi said Dodds made "rambling and disjointed" statements.
Dodds, a Democrat, finished third in a four-way race for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District. Winner Carol Shea-Porter defeated the Republican incumbent.
Associated Press Writer David Tirrell-Wysocki in Concord contributed to this report.
