CONCORD — An attorney for a Strafford man who was convicted of punching a Lebanon police officer during a 2007 traffic stop argued on Thursday that newly discovered evidence showing one of the officers had a disciplinary mark on his record calls the case into question.

“The trial was tainted by the representations the prosecution made. He was denied a fair trial,” Jared Bedrick, the attorney for Scott Traudt, said during a hearing before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Bedrick called for a new trial for his client, who was convicted of simple assault in 2008 and served a year in prison.

But Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Woodcock countered that the request for a new trial based on “new” evidence is untimely, since Traudt discovered the officer’s disciplinary record back in 2013.

“He’s saying, ‘I want a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that is now six years old,’ ” she said in the hearing, which was streamed live on the state’s judicial web site. “That doesn’t make any sense. If newly discovered evidence can be that old, then it really isn’t newly discovered.”

Bedrick’s motion for a new trial, which he filed in July, and Thursday’s oral arguments are the latest in a years-long battle Traudt has waged following his arrest in January 2007 when Lebanon Police Officers Richard Smolenski and Phillip Roberts pulled over a car driven by Traudt’s then-wife, Victoria, claiming she ran a red light after they had left a nightclub in West Lebanon.

During the traffic stop, Traudt got out of the car, leading to an “altercation” with police. Traudt denied any wrongdoing, saying the officers had tackled and pepper sprayed him, but at his 2008 trial the police officers testified that Traudt had punched Roberts and body slammed Smolenski. Jurors partly sided with police and convicted Traudt of one count of assaulting an officer and one of count of disorderly conduct.

Since no video footage was available of the incident, prosecutors at the trial had asked the jury to believe the officers, partly because neither officer had disciplinary marks on his record, according to Bedrick’s July motion. But, Bedrick argued Thursday, that turned out to be false.

In 2013, as part of a civil lawsuit Traudt filed against the city of Lebanon, he discovered an unredacted affidavit that showed one of the two officers did have “at least one sustained disciplinary finding” during his time as a Lebanon Police officer, prior to Traudt’s arrest, Bedrick wrote in the motion.

Under questioning from a justice, Bedrick acknowledged he did not know which officer — Smolenski or Roberts — had the mark on his record. But, he said, it didn’t matter which one, since both officers had testified against Traudt at his three-day trial.

In New Hampshire, prosecutors are required to inform the defense of any disciplinary cases that would call a police officer’s credibility into question.

Roberts has since been promoted to deputy chief, and Smolenski remains on the force, though he was placed this summer on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

In response to a question from Justice James Bassett regarding the six-year gap between when Traudt discovered the disciplinary finding in 2013 and when Bedrick took on Traudt’s appeal case in 2019, Bedrick said that came down to a matter of opportunity.

After Traudt’s civil lawsuit against the city was dismissed in 2013, Traudt tried to take the newfound information to several attorneys, none of whom agreed to represent him, until he met Bedrick last year, the attorney said.

But Woodcock said that’s not an excuse for the gap, adding that every case – barring homicides – has a statute of limitations, and this should be no exception.

“Waiting for that length of time ought to count against him,” Woodcock said, adding that Traudt always had the option to represent himself if he had a hard time finding an attorney. “If he were so certain this were a miscarriage of justice, he should have acted on it, and he didn’t.”

Traudt, who turns 55 on Saturday and now works as a professional mariner, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.