Transgender Legislator Charged with Stalking, Violating Restraining Order in New Hampshire

Stacie Laughton
Nashua PD
Spencer Lindquist

New Hampshire’s first transgender public official has been charged with stalking a victim and violating a restraining order. 

Stacie Laughton, who was recently reelected as a Democrat to New Hampshire’s State House, has been arrested for alleged stalking, Reduxx reported. 

Laughton was arrested on November 12th after allegedly disobeying a restraining order that an unidentified woman placed against him in July. 

This was not the first instance in which Laughton allegedly violated the restraining order. He was also arrested in September after allegedly trying to contact the victim in August. Reduxx reported, “There was virtually no media coverage of his September arrest, which likely meant voters were unaware of it ahead of the November 8 elections.” 

Laughton, who ran as a “Libertarian Democrat” in Nashua’s 4th Ward, was reelected and has a seat in the Granite State’s House of Representatives.

The representative also ran into trouble with the law in 2021. Authorities say he unlawfully used the Nashua emergency system, sending seven texts to police and prompting them to show up to his address before denying sending the texts. 

Laughton, the state’s first transgender public official, was first elected to the legislature in 2012. He withdrew before entering office after it was revealed he had been convicted of a felony for identity and credit card fraud, as well as falsifying physical evidence. That conviction resulted in a four-month prison sentence.

He attempted to run in subsequent elections before being deemed ineligible to hold public office at the time. 

In addition to these current pending charges, Laughton was arrested in 2015 for making a bomb threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, which he blamed on a mental health episode. 

He was then charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to a six-month suspended jail term. 

One Democrat, Representative Timothy Horrigan, defended Laughton on Twitter, saying that he “is basically a good person” and is “not violent or abusive or harmful to anyone other than herself,” referring to the man with feminine pronouns.

Republican legislator Di Lothrop, the co-chair of the Nashua Republican Committee, criticized Laughton while also using feminine pronouns to refer to the man, saying, “She has a huge problem. She’s been through this before, she’s been in prison. Obviously, the lesson wasn’t learned.” 

Paul Smith, the Clerk of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, pointed out that there is no official mechanism to oust a representative who has been charged with a crime. “There are no rules. There is no automatic process for expulsion,” he noted.

Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com

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