Rep claims Bettencourt faked internship reports

By MATTHEW SPOLAR

Monitor staff

Last modified: 5/27/2012 12:00:00 AM

A state representative from Chichester said House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt falsified reports of a law school internship and did not tell the truth Friday about why he decided to resign from the House.



"I will never cover for a dishonest person," Republican Rep. Brandon Giuda said yesterday as he called for Bettencourt, 28, to resign by noon today and admit he faked an 11-week internship he claimed to have completed at Giuda's solo-practice law firm.



Bettencourt announced Friday that he would resign from the House at the close of the legislative session June 7, citing his upcoming marriage and a new job at the New Hampshire Legal Rights Foundation, a legal advocacy nonprofit founded by House Speaker Bill O'Brien.



But that isn't the full story, Giuda says.



Early this year, Bettencourt, a Republican from Salem in his third year at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, approached Giuda on the House floor and said "I'm in trouble, I need to speak with you," Giuda recalled yesterday.



"We went out in the hall and he said, 'I don't have enough credits to graduate, and I need to do an internship,'" Giuda said.



Giuda said he was initially skeptical about allowing Bettencourt to intern at his home office but agreed after the law school allowed him to draw up a contract for Bettencourt to sign.



Giuda said the first two weeks Bettencourt didn't show up as promised, claiming to have had prior obligations. Giuda said he told Bettencourt that at a minimum he must show up from 1 to 5 p.m. every Friday. The third week, he said, Bettencourt arrived late and stayed for about 2½ hours, only one of which Giuda counted as doing actual legal work.



After that, Giuda says, Bettencourt never showed up again.



"He never talked about it again, at which point I assumed he went to the school and said 'I didn't do the internship,' " Giuda said. "The next thing I know, last Saturday I'm on Facebook and a picture of D.J. pops up saying, "I graduated.' " This didn't sound right to Giuda, so earlier this week he emailed the law school asking for a copy of the reports Bettencourt filed about the internship. The law school, citing confidentiality concerns, contacted Bettencourt about releasing the reports. That's when Giuda said Bettencourt called him and admitted to fabricating his internship experience.



"He threw himself on my mercy and he gave me a full confession, but he said at that time, 'I do not want the law school to find out, they'll expel me,' " Giuda said. Bettencourt offered to work for free for six months "or whatever it takes if this doesn't get out," Giuda said.



Giuda said he would wait until he saw the reports, which Bettencourt agreed to release.



"I opened them up, and I was stunned. Absolutely stunned," Giuda said.



Bettencourt had submitted reports for 11 weeks interning with Giuda, totaling about 165 hours of legal work, Giuda said.



"They talk about court hearings that never happened," Giuda said. "They're very, very detailed, and they're scary because they took him quite a while to write them. . . . When I saw the level of detail, I said, 'Something's wrong with this kid.' " Giuda said he called a meeting with O'Brien and Bettencourt on Friday, where he demanded Bettencourt resign citing "personal problems" and go to the law school and make a complete confession. Giuda said in order to complete the rest of the legislative session smoothly, the resignation would be effective June 7. Giuda said O'Brien respected his decision.



Friday night, Bettencourt announced his resignation from the House.



"It is time for me to move on to the next exciting phase of my life," Bettencourt said. "I'm getting married next week, and I am at a point in my life where my family should and needs to be my first priority."



That didn't fly with Giuda.



"He made it just sound like it was a career transfer," Giuda said. "I'm not going to let a 20-year-old, lying young man impugn my credibility."



At that point, Giuda said advisers, including past and current House members, were telling him to go public with the story. But Giuda was still reluctant until Bettencourt called him yesterday saying he had spoken to a New Hampshire Union Leader reporter and acknowledged a "dispute" over his internship record but had brought the matter to the law school's attention on his own accord.



"At that point, I said, 'D.J., we're done,' " said Giuda, who felt the statements did not truthfully represent the situation. Giuda gave an interview to the Union Leader, WMUR and the Monitor last night detailing his interactions with Bettencourt.



Bettencourt could not be reached by the Monitor, but he acknowledged in an interview with the Union Leader yesterday that he did not graduate. The tube he received at the ceremony, which typically holds a degree, was empty, he said. Giuda said Bettencourt told him even with his alleged internship he did not have credits to officially graduate but was allowed to walk at graduation.



If Bettencourt doesn't step down by noon today, Giuda said, he will release the internship reports. Additionally, Giuda said a major client of his, whom Bettencourt claimed to have spoken and met with, will go public about not even knowing who Bettencourt was when Giuda followed up.



Since going public with his story yesterday, Giuda said he's received numerous text messages and emails of support. Some have cautioned the story could hurt his political career but "I'm in this for my principles," Giuda said.



"I am humbled by the number of senior and junior representatives who are rallying around me," Giuda said. "Some are praying, some are saying I'm an honorable person."



(Matthew Spolar can be reached at 369-3309 or mspolar@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @mattspolar.)





