A transgender criminal who serves in the New Hampshire House of Representatives is in jail for stalking a woman, a third arrest for the Democrat lawmaker.
State representative Stacie Laughton, a Democrat formerly known as "Barry," was arrested in November on more than a dozen charges related to the stalking and is expected to remain behind bars "for the next couple of months," according to a public defender's letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Laughton, who had just won reelection, was arrested on Nov. 12 for making false 911 calls about the female victim as well as harassing her on social media and on a radio program Laughton hosts, in violation of a July court order. It's the third arrest for the state representative, who has also been charged with credit card fraud and falsely reporting a bomb threat.
Laughton is the latest felonious transgender official to be charged in recent months. In October, a nonbinary Biden administration official, Sam Brinton, stole a woman's suitcase worth more than $2,000 from an airport carousel and now faces up to five years in prison for theft. Following the charges, Brinton, a deputy assistant secretary at the Energy Department, was put on leave and later went on to host a seminar on the science of spanking at a Los Angeles kink convention.
Republican state representative Ross Berry told the Free Beacon the public defender's letter implies Laughton agreed to a plea deal. Under New Hampshire's Constitution, lawmakers cannot be kept from carrying out official duties, even after being arrested. A district court judge initially held Laughton without bail pending a hearing last week, saying the state representative posed a danger to the female victim and the community at large, the NH Journal reported. The results of that hearing have not been announced.
Laughton's defense attorney declined to comment. New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley on Wednesday called on Laughton to resign, noting the charges against the representative "are extremely serious and troubling and have no place in our state legislature or in our party."
Laughton was convicted in August of having made false 911 reports last year about the same female victim, alleging that she was suicidal, according to NH Journal. The Democratic lawmaker pleaded no contest to the charges and was slapped with a nine-month suspended sentence, which prosecutors are seeking to reimpose in the wake of the stalking charges. Laughton, who is married to a woman, once referred to the female victim as "wife."
Laughton was convicted in 2008 of credit card fraud and charged in 2015 with falsely calling in a bomb threat to a hospital in Nashua. The latter offense was reduced to a six-month suspended sentence when Laughton claimed to have made the phone call during a mental health crisis.
In 2006, Laughton faked a mental health emergency to score a free ambulance ride back from the beach after watching a July 4 fireworks display, the Laconia Daily Sun reported. The same year, Laughton also faced misdemeanor charges for slashing a neighbor's tires.
This is the second time the New Hampshire Democrat has won election while concealing a criminal charge. Laughton was elected in 2012, only to resign shortly after the 2008 credit card conviction surfaced. Liberal media outlets at the time lauded Laughton for being the first openly transgender official in the Granite State.