A transgender Democrat lawmaker has been arrested on stalking charges, according to reports.
New Hampshire State Rep. Stacie Laughton, the first openly transgender representative to be elected, was arrested for violating a previously filed protective order.
The 38-year-old Democrat, who was born Barry Charles Laughton Jr., was arrested on November 12.
Laughton is accused of violating the protective order by allegedly trying to harass the victim on social media.
The victim, an unidentified woman, had previously taken out a restraining order against Laughton over previous stalking and harassment incidents.
The Hudson Police Department said that Laughton had also been arrested in September for violating the same order by attempting to contact the victim in August.
Laughton had been arrested and then released shortly after.
This case is far from the first brush with the law for the Democrat lawmaker, however, as Laughton has a long history of criminal violations.
Last year, Laughton was charged with providing false information to the 911 emergency system in Nashua County by reporting a hoax.
Police said Laughton had sent seven texts to Nashua 911, prompting officers to respond to Laughton’s address, where they discovered no emergency.
Laughton had claimed that some unknown person had used a “spoofed” number to send the texts.
When arrested for violating the protective order, Laughton was on parole for the bomb hoax charge.
Laughton was first elected in 2012 but had to resign before the term began because of media reports about a prior felony conviction for charges of identity and credit card fraud and falsifying physical evidence.
However, Laughton was allowed to run again after the suspended sentence had run out in 2018.
Then in 2015, Laughton was charged with calling in a bomb threat that targeted the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone,” Laughton said and blamed the episode on bipolar disorder.
“It was totally out of character for me.”
Di Lothrop, the co-chair of the Nashua Republican Committee, called the election of Laughton “abominable” and an “embarrassment.”
Paul Smith, the clerk of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, told ReDuxx magazine that there was no mechanism to remove a lawmaker over criminal convictions.
