CONCORD – The state Supreme Court has upheld a divorce degree involving a Hollis couple who were in the news five years ago after the wife was sent to jail for stealing $1.3 million from the nonprofit Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Mass.

The detailed ruling dealt with several issues in the divorce case between Peggy Kempton, who in 2010 pleaded guilty to fraud involving the nonprofit museum, and Robert Kempton, an airline pilot.

The couple bought a home in Hollis in 1998 with the intention of moving there, but according to court documents, only Robert Kempton made it a permanent residence. Peggy Kempton and their two children, now grown, lived on property rented from the Fruitlands Museum, where she was chief financial officer.

Peggy Kempton was sentenced to jail in Massachusetts after she admitted in 2010 that she created credit card accounts for herself, family members and museum employees and charged items for her personal use, paying the balances with money from the museum.

At the time, the attorney general’s office said she used the funds to pay for her children’s college tuition and to buy clothes.

The couple divorced in 2011, according to court records. Since then, both have petitioned to have the divorce changed for a variety of reasons, all of which the Supreme Court turned down in its June 25 ruling.

Peggy Kempton argued it was unconstitutional that she could only participate in some of the divorce hearings by telephone because she was incarcerated, but the court disagreed.

Robert Kempton argued the financial costs of coping with his wife’s crime had driven him into bankruptcy and wanted to overturn the alimony award of $2,850 a month for eight years. But the court said it could not alter the divorce court’s figure, it could only determine whether that court had sufficient basis to make a decision – and the high court ruled that it did.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531, dbrooks@nashua
telegraph.com or @GraniteGeek.