Former state representative Jim Ryan, whose criminal past surfaced last year after he was jailed on unpaid restitution charges, is locked up again - this time on allegations that he stole client records from a recent employer.

Meanwhile, the state charged him yesterday with diverting more than $11,000 from the state Committee to Elect House Democrats while he served as its co-chairman.

The new cases, which are unrelated, represent the most recent troubles in the convoluted criminal tale of Ryan, 51, who for decades led a double life that went unexposed until last year.

He has convictions in three states for crimes including forgery, passing bad checks and larceny. He lost his law license in the 1980s but continued for years to represent himself as an attorney.

Until he was arrested in August, most knew Ryan only for his political skill, a Democrat from Franklin who rose in the party's ranks to chair the House Transportation Committee as well as Joe Biden's New Hampshire presidential campaign.

He also served as co-chairman of the Committee to Elect House Democrats, and it was in that position that he diverted money from the party, according to the state attorney general's office.

Between August 2006 and May 2007, Ryan "exercised unauthorized control" over $11,044.92 of the committee's money, diverting it "without the permission of the Committee, and with the purpose to deprive the Committee of the funds," according to a statement released by the attorney general's office yesterday evening.

The statement doesn't describe how Ryan allegedly diverted the money or how the loss was discovered, and Associate Attorney General Jane Young said last night she couldn't comment further.

Ryan faces a felony charge of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

But he was already in jail yesterday after he pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges of theft by unauthorized taking and was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail during an arraignment in Northern Carroll County District Court.

Those charges stem from Ryan's alleged failure to return several client files after he was fired from Anchor Business Services, a tax preparation and financial services company in Conway, in June.

According to a police affidavit, the company's owner, Richard Goss, fired Ryan on June 15, sometime after "he was informed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that Ryan was a convicted felon with a history of embezzlement."

Goss said yesterday he had "no prior knowledge" of Ryan's record when he hired him as a tax preparer in January. He declined to comment on Ryan's performance at work.

He also declined to comment on whether Ryan had kept more client files than the three mentioned in court complaints.

According to the police affidavit, a Conway detective spoke with one of the clients Thursday, 10 days after Ryan was fired.

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