N.H

Actor Nicholas Braun, best known for his work in the hit HBO series “Succession,” began his Labor Day weekend with a run-in with New Hampshire law officials.

Moultonborough Police Chief Peter W. Beede announced in a Tuesday press release that officers arrested the 37-year-old actor Friday evening on suspicion of DUI-Impairment in the town of Moultonborough, N.H., about an hour north of the state’s capitol of Concord. Braun was also arrested on suspicion of driving at night without his headlights on.

The release did not share additional information about Braun’s arrest. Representatives for the actor did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Braun was booked in Carroll County Jail and released on his own recognizance, according to TMZ. The outlet also reported that the actor will be arraigned Sept. 16.

In HBO’s “Succession,” Braun became a fan favorite for his portrayal of Cousin Greg, an outsider who manages to weasel his way into the core family’s business and the bid for aging media mogul Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) multi-industry empire. He received three Primetime Emmy nominations for the role.

Braun is also known for his work in Disney flicks “Sky High,” “Princess Protection Program” and “Minutemen.” His credits include “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” “Zola” and “Saturday Night.”

Aug. 31 (UPI) — Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and one-time lawyer to President Donald Trump, was hospitalized with a fractured vertebra following a car crash in New Hampshire, his head of security announced Sunday.

The security official, Michael Ragusa, said Giuliani’s vehicle was struck from behind Saturday evening while he was traveling on a highway.

“He was transported to a nearby trauma center, where he was diagnosed with a fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg,” Ragusa said in a statement posted to X.

Giuliani “is in good spirits and recovering tremendously,” he added.

CONCORD, N.H. — President Trump’s administration wants to be dropped from a lawsuit in which two New Hampshire teens are challenging their state’s ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports and the president’s executive order on the same topic.

Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, became first to challenge Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order when they added him to their ongoing lawsuit over New Hampshire’s ban in February. A federal judge has ruled that they can try out and play on girls sports teams while the case proceeds.

In a motion filed Friday, attorneys for the government say the teens are trying to “drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of an imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with policies set by the President of the United States.”

Deputy Associate Atty. Gen. Richard Lawson argued that the government has done nothing yet to enforce the executive orders in New Hampshire and may never do so.

“Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,” wrote Lawson, who asked the judge to dismiss claims against Trump, the Justice and Education departments, and their leaders.

Trump’s executive order gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX — which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools — in alignment with the Trump administration’s view of a person’s sex as the gender assigned at birth.

Lawyers for the teens say the order, along with parts of a Jan. 20 executive order that forbids federal money to be used to “promote gender ideology,” subjects the teens and all transgender girls to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX.

In its response, the government argues that the order does not discriminate based on sex because males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports.

Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation’s youth population — about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, or around 300,000 people. But about half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire’s sports ban, with supporters arguing that allowing transgender girls to play is unfair and dangerous.

In interviews this year, neither New Hampshire teen said they feel they hold any advantage over other players. Tirrell says she’s less muscular than other girls on her soccer team, and Turmelle said she doesn’t see herself as a major athlete.

“To the argument that it’s not fair, I’d just like to point out that I did not get on the softball team,” Turmelle recalled of her tryout last year. “If that wasn’t fair, then I don’t know what you want from me.”

Ramer writes for the Associated Press.

May 31 (UPI) — The former leader of two rehab centers faces federal charges in the alleged harassment of New Hampshire Public Radio journalists in retaliation for an unfavorable news story about alleged sexual misconduct.

Eric Spofford, 40, was arrested Friday after being indicted by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and using a facility of interstate commerce; one count of stalking using a facility of interstate commerce; and two counts of stalking through interstate travel, the Departmentof Justice announced.

Each count is punishable by up to five years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Spofford is the founder and former chief executive officer of the for-profit Granite Recovery Centers in Salem, N.H., and Miami.

He has an arraignment hearing scheduled at 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday at the federal courthouse in Boston.

GRC is one of the largest drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in New England, and Spofford sold it in 2021 for $115 million, The New York Times reported.

Many abuses detailed

NHPR on March 22, 2022, published an online article that discussed allegations of sexual misconduct, abusive leadership and retaliation by Spofford.

He allegedly harassed former patients and staff, and was accused of sexually assaulting at least two staff members.

One former patient said he sent her unwanted text messages and at least one photo of an obscene nature, which she said caused her to suffer a relapse.

Several staffers and a former chief operating officer left GRC due to the alleged behavior by Spofford, according to the article.

He denied the allegations, but the article gained a lot of attention locally and nationally, according to the DOJ.

He sued the public radio station for defamation, but a judge dismissed the case in 2023.

A scheme to ‘harass and terrorize’

From March 2022 through at least May 2022, Spofford allegedly “devised a scheme to harass and terrorize the journalist who authored the article, the journalist’s immediate family members [and] a senior editor at NHPR,” the DOJ said.

Federal prosecutors say he paid a close friend, Eric Labarge, $20,000 to undertake the scheme and provided him with names, addresses and instructions on how to stalk and harass the intended victims.

Labarge enlisted the help of three others to stalk and harass the victims, all of whom were charged and convicted of crimes related to the scheme, DOJ said.

Labarge, Tucker Cockerline, Keenan Saniatan and Michael Waselchuk last year were sentenced to between 21 months and 46 months in prison.