Trump campaign county chair was fired from police for threatening to rape boss’s wife and go on shooting spree

A New Hampshire Republican state representative and Trump campaign county chair was reportedly fired from his job as a police officer in 2006 after making violent threats against colleagues following a suspension for having a relationship with a 16-year-old high school student, according to recently released documents.

Rep Jonathan Stone, who represents Claremont in western New Hampshire in the state legislature, said he would kill fellow officers and rape the wife and children of his boss, the police chief at the time. The threats came after he was suspended for five days for a relationship with a student at Stevens High School.

A Claremont police detective wrote in an internal report that “the seriousness of threatening to kill command staff officers, raping the Chief’s wife, tying people up and going postal are violations at the most serious level”.

“Stone’s conduct goes so far beyond what is expected of a professional police officer that the only appropriate resolution is his removal from office,” the report found, according to InDepthNH.org.

Former president Donald Trump personally thanked Mr Stone for his work on the campaign as the Sullivan County chair during a speech in Claremont late last year and Mr Stone spoke on behalf of the campaign in interviews with media outlets leading up to the New Hampshire primary, the Granite Post noted.

Mr Stone is reported to have worked to keep the internal reports under wraps for years. The New Hampshire Supreme Court recently ruled that Mr Stone couldn’t block their release after InDepthNH.org filed a right-to-know request in 2020.

Mr Stone reportedly built a reputation for being aggressive on the job and he had previously been reprimanded for having assaulted a mentally disabled man as he was being detained and for not arresting a drunk driver who subsequently almost struck a police vehicle in Vermont.

However, it was the investigation into his relationship with a high school girl that prompted Mr Stone’s threats of violence. The investigation was conducted by the late Claremont detective Colby Casey.

Jesse Vezina, then a Claremont detective, told Mr Casey: “If he gets fired, people are afraid he will go postal.”

“He makes me nervous as far as after a confrontation with him, he may try to do something to my wife or family. Generally, people think he is crazy and wonder why he is a police officer,” he added.

Mr Stone claimed that the high school student was a drug investigation source, but there was no record of him using any information from her. The student’s identity is redacted in the reports.

According to a report by a Claremont police captain, there’s no evidence Mr Stone and the student had a physical relationship.

“(She) obviously has feelings for Officer Stone and (she) has told Officer Stone that she loves him,” now-retired Captain Mark Chase wrote after investigating Mr Stone in February 2006. “Officer Stone takes this statement as a friend, but the way that (she) speaks about him it appears it is more than friends.”

Mr Chase ended his investigation and weeks later, on 8 March 2006, Mr Casey was called in to look into allegations of threats against fellow officers and the chief of police as well as his family.

More than a dozen officers said they had heard Mr Stone threaten the chief and his family and threaten to kill other officers in a shooting spree at the police station, according to InDepthNH.org.

“Stability is a day-to-day thing for Jon,” one officer told Mr Casey.

“I have heard him say (when he is pissed off) that he is going to go to the Chief’s house and rape his wife. He is going to make the Chief watch. He is going to possibly hurt the Chief while he is there,” one detective said, according to the report. “I recall Jon saying he was going to go to the Chief’s house and rape the Chief’s wife, and kids, and shoot the Chief.”

“Stone did not deny saying the things and did not report the others interviewed were lying – he just simply avoided answering the questions directly by using selective memory,” Mr Casey wrote at the time. “During the interview with Officer Stone, it was clear to me that he had selective memory concerning events about the threats towards employees. When asked about certain things that did not involve the threats Officer Stone’s answers were clear and direct.”

The Independent has contacted the office of Mr Stone as well as the Trump campaign for comment.