Proof that even FTL BBS folks can get elected in NH

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Sure, in some states felons are not even allowed to vote. In New Hampshire, not only are felons allowed to vote, they are aloud to run and often win. For example, a friend of mine who served 9 years or so in jail was recently elected as a Republican in New Hampshire.

This is a different story, though. This is a person who has spent her entire adult life in trouble with the law (for crimes with a victim). She did his time, got out and has now won 2 elections, including to the New Hampshire House. This is how easy it is to get elected in New Hampshire. How much did her campaign cost? Likely her total expenses were close to the $2 filing fee.

Nashua voters elected felon to N.H. House who is very familiar to Laconia police
Written by Gail Ober
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/index.php/newsx/local-news/63870-stacie-marie-laughton-s-past

LACONIA — As news of the first transgendered individual to win election to a seat in the New Hampshire Legislature works its way through the Internet, little to nothing has been said or written about Stacie Marie Laughton's past — especially during her years in Laconia.

Laughton, recently elected as one of three lawmakers to represent Hillsborough County House District 31, is a convicted felon and served 4 1/2 months in jail in 2008 for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud. She was also convicted of tire slashing and at one point reportedly admitted she faked illness to gain an ambulance ride from Weirs Beach back to the heart of Laconia.

According to N.H. State law, convicted felons can run for public office as long as they are not incarcerated and they have successfully completed any court-ordered probation.

According to a source who is familiar with Nashua politics, District 31 largely consists of Ward 4 — a Democratic Party stronghold in the city center where voter turnout is traditionally low and both parties often find it difficult to field candidates. In the November election, Laughton bested two Republicans and neither she nor the two other Democrats were challenged in the September primary.

Laughton came to Laconia from Nashua, where she was raised, in 2003, to be near her parents, who had moved to Gilford. At the time, Stacie Marie was named Barry Charles Jr. and in 2005, during her first run for public office — the Laconia City Council in 2005 — she listed her occupation as pastry chef but said she was between jobs. During her time in Laconia, she lived primarily in public assistance housing and engaged in a number of small, home-based businesses, including selling vegetables.

In December of 2006, she lost an election for the at-large seat for the Laconia School Board to incumbent Marge Kerns.
In 2009, she again ran for the Ward 3 seat on City Council, again against Henry Lipman.

In September of 2010, Laughton, running as a Democrat and listed on the ballot as Barry "Stacie" Laughton, lost a Democratic Primary race for one of the five Laconia seats in the N.H. House.

Just 21 at the time, Laughton gained 108 votes (18 percent) in her first run for Laocnia City Council. When she ran for the same office again in 2009 her vote total dropped to just 39 votes (10 percent). She was one of three candidates in the 2006 School Board race, garnering 49 votes (2 percent). And she was the one candidate eliminated in the 2010 Democratic Primary race for the Laconia House seats, attracting 167 votes.
But while Laughton was waging her bid for elective office, she was also attracting attention from the justice system.
On July 5, 2006, Laughton and her now ex-wife Lisa went to Weirs Beach to view the annual fireworks display. Police reports obtained from the Laconia Police said the Laughtons called city police via 9-1-1 at 2:13 a.m., at 3:16 a.m. and at 3:45 a.m. because they were stranded.
They were told city police were not in a position to give them a ride back to Laconia proper — about five miles — where the two lived.
On the last call to 9-1-1, Laughton stated she was suicidal and that Lisa Laughton had fallen. They requested two ambulances and two were sent, along with a city police officer.

Both were transported to Lakes Region General Hospital where Laughton told the attending physician initially that he had called the ambulance because he couldn't sleep and suffered from depression.

In the next breath, reports indicate Laughton said, "Honestly Doc, I was at the Weirs fireworks and didn't have a ride home."
The doctor declined to treat Laughton further and the police said they were unable to drive them home. They called a taxi who took them the short distance from LRGH to their home, told the driver they needed to go inside to get the $4 fare, and never returned to the waiting driver — who called the police.

Records indicate that two police officers went to their Church Street apartment and pounded on the door until Laughton answered. Laughton said he wouldn't pay the $4 fare because the taxi service has assured them that it would run until 2 a.m. but didn't.
Police said she became "increasingly agitated," finally telling the two officers that Laconia District Court Judge David O. Huot (also elected to serve in the new Legislature the 2012 election as a Laconia Democrat) would "laugh the charges out of court" and there was nothing the city police could do about it.

Laughton was charged with one felony count of creating a public alarm (for calling emergency services) and for theft of services — the taxi cab ride from the hospital. The county attorney did not prosecute the felony however, Huot accepted Laughton's guilty plea for theft of services.
Also in 2006, Laughton was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mischief for slashing the tires of another resident in her apartment building with whom he had a long-running disagreement. She was ordered to pay $647 in restitution.

In 2007, Stacie Marie — who was still Barry C. — and Lisa Laughton ran afoul of Laconia Police again.

This time in May, Laconia Police learned from a woman at the Church Street apartment building where the couple had lived before moving to 103 Blueberry Lane, also a Laconia Housing Authority property, that a Citi-Bank credit card had been opened in her name but she didn't open it.
After an investigation, police detectives determined the Laughtons had opened the credit card account in the woman's name and had purchased electronics and paid bills with it.

Documents obtained from Belknap County Superior Court indicate Laughton was indicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit fraudulent use of a credit card, one count of conspiracy to commit identity fraud, and one count of falsifying physical evidence for disposing of two of the computers, two cell phones and a printer after learning of the police investigation.

On July 29, 2008, she pleaded guilty — under the name of Barry Charles Jr. — to the three charges.

Laughton was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud — all suspended pending 10 years of good behavior, and 3 1/2 to 7 years for the falsifying physical evidence — again suspended to 10 years good behavior. The two suspended sentences were concurrent.

She was sentenced to serve 12 months with four months suspended in the Belknap County House of Corrections for conspiracy to commit fraudulent use of a credit card. According to Department of Corrections media spokesman Jeff Lyons, Laughton served four and one-half months in jail and was released on November 21, 2008.

Ordered to remain on probation for two years, Laughton's probation ended on November 22, 2010. She was ordered to pay $1,991 in restitution, joint and severed with Lisa Laughton. To date, $1,706 remains unpaid, said Lyons.

During the course of legal proceedings, Laughton's attorney asked for a competency evaluation to determine Laughton's mental fitness for trail.
On July 8, 2008, Judge Kenneth McHugh ordered that she was competent to stand trial and was able to assist in her own defense.
McHugh's order recapped some of the testimony of the July 7 hearing of N.H. Chief Forensics Examiner Dr. James Adams.
In his order, McHugh noted that this was the second time Adams had done a competency hearing for Laughton who was given a "primary diagnosis of ADHD with some associated learning disabilities as well as Anti-Social Personality Disorder. But he said the diagnoses would not interfere with Laughton's ability to understand the court proceedings.

On the contrary, Adams said that Laughton did "markedly poorer" on the 2007 test than in the 2003 test although some of the questions were the same.

"The defendant did so poorly that Dr. Adams was compelled to conclude that he intentionally mis-answered the questions," wrote McHugh. "Even such a basic question as 'What is a felony?' was described by the defendant recently as a way to get off a criminal charge."
McHugh wrote that Adams' report stated that even if someone had guessed at all of the answers he or she would have done better than Laughton, leading both the doctor and McHugh to conclude she was a malingerer — defined by Webster's Dictionary as someone who feigns illness to avoid duty or service.

"Thus in Dr. Adams' mind, it was the goal of the defendant to fail all tests because the defendant had determined that to the extent that there were going to be any consequences with respect to his pending criminal charges, he would be better of if those consequences were resolved in a mental health setting rather than in a criminal trial or where confinement in jail or prison was a possibility," McHugh wrote.