The first openly transgender legislator in the history of the U.S. has been arrested in connection with a bomb threat at a local hospital.
Stacie Laughton, 31, of 243 Main St., Apt. 21, Nashua, turned herself in to Nashua Police just before noon on Thursday on an active arrest warrant for false report as to explosives, a Class B felony. She allegedly called in a bomb threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua on the morning of Feb. 27.
According to police, an unknown person called the hospital and said there was an explosive device in the building. Police and hospital security searched the facility and were not able to find any suspicious devices.
During the course of the investigation, Nashua Police detectives identified Laughton as the person who made the threat, and issued a warrant for her arrest. Laughton is free on $50,000 personal recognizance bail pending her arraignment on April 16 in Nashua Circuit Court.
Laughton told the Union Leader that she is bipolar and was off her medication at the time of the incident and is now undergoing treatment.
Laughton was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2012, but resigned days later after it came out that she had served four months in prison for a 2008 credit card fraud conviction. She was also convicted of tire slashing and falsifying physical evidence, but those charges were suspended for good behavior.
