Former Assistant Attorney General William McCallum, the New Hampshire state prosecutor arrested two weeks ago for possession of stolen art, has been charged with eight counts of receiving stolen property and is currently awaiting the start of his trial in September.
McCallum is being held at the Rockingham County House of Corrections after Judge Lawrence Warhall of Derry District Court set his bail at $140,000 -- three times what the prosecutors had requested.
Prosecutors have charged McCallum with eight counts of theft -- five class A felony counts, two class B felony counts and one misdemeanor count -- according to McCallum's former colleague, Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Ramsdell.
Further charges may be forthcoming, Ramsdell said.
Each class A felony could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison if McCallum is convicted. A class B felony is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a misdemeanor carries one year of prison time.
Hanover Police Detective-Sergeant Frank Moran said it was a computer stolen from a Dartmouth student that led to the discovery of the art pieces and the eventual arrest of McCallum.
Moran said he received a tip from David Breed -- a friend of McCallum's estranged wife, Valerie Nevel -- who was concerned that a computer he had seen might have been stolen.
Breed said he first saw the computer when helping Nevel move out of McCallum's home.
Nevel and McCallum had been having marital difficulties for several months and on June 20, Nevel moved out of McCallum's home with their children, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
Breed said he offered to help Nevel with her Macintosh computer and other equipment. While examining the software inside the two computers -- a Macintosh desktop and laptop sysem -- Breed noticed that the software had been registered to a stranger.
When Nevel explained that she did not know from where the Macintoshes had come, Breed decided to call the Hanover Police.
Breed, the manager of a Lebanon, N.H. security outfit that installs many of the alarm systems in Dartmouth-owned buildings, said he knew the College was missing some computers and was suspicious Nevel's Macintosh might be one of them.
Breed said he had also been suspicious about the art pieces in McCallum's house when Nevel explained that her husband "got them at yardsales" or "couldn't explain where some of the stuff came from."
"You just don't get that kind of stuff at yardsales," Breed said. "Given what had been going on with [Nevel], I took what she said in a critical light."
Breed said he may have seen the pieces of art before while working at the College, but he did not think anything was amiss untill "she said they got them at yardsales."
After acquiring a search warrant and after examining the equipment, police determined the computer was one that had been stolen from a student at the Thayer School of Engineering in 1995, Moran said.
Police also observed other items in McCallum's home that "were stolen in other crimes," Moran said.
After interviews with people who had seen the interior of the McCallum residence, the police obtained another search warrant, this time to look for the missing College artwork, Moran said.
He said the Londonderry police were called in to assist and two more search warrants were issued so investigators could completely scour the McCallum residence.
Police suspect the works of art that were recovered might be traced to thefts from as far back as six years ago -- but large numbers were probably stolen in 1995, Moran said.
Many pieces of art have been seized by the Londonderry police but have not been matched with any particular owner, Moran said.
"We are working on other leads in the case to recover more stolen property," he said.
It has not yet been determined that McCallum actually stole the equipment and art recovered, Moran said.
"Ultimately you can achieve the same ends if you can show he knowingly possessed stolen goods down there," he said. "We are content with showing he possessed stolen goods."
