August 12, 2021
Watch: NH School Board Member Hurls Anti-Gay Slurs as Cops Arrest Her
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.
A Weare, New Hampshire, school board member beat a COVID-related rap stemming from an incident in 2020. However, she still faces charges relating to a traffic stop last month in which she allegedly interfered with police –�and then hurled anti-gay slurs at them as she was placed under arrest.
"Rochelle Kelley, 33, was the passenger in a car driven by her husband, Samuel Kelley, on July 25 when Weare Police stopped them for having an expired inspection sticker and state registration," reports local newspaper the Concord Monitor.
"Police accuse Rochelle Kelley of preventing the police officers from conducting an inventory of the items in the car before it was towed, and did not cooperate when she was told she was being placed under arrest," the Monitor added.
That's putting it mildly: Raw Story details that as she was being placed under arrest, Kelley launched into a tirade in which she directed homophobic slurs at the officers.
"Fuck you, you faggots!" Raw Story reports Kelley screamed at the police officers. "Eat shit, you cock-sucking dick," she added, the article says.
Kelley has been charged with resisting arrest.
The school board member was cleared in court this week of charges stemming from a separate incident in 2020. Kelley went on trial for criminal mischief and disorderly conduct after refusing to follow police instructions in April of last year to leave a public playground that had been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Concord Monitor reported on those charges in a separate article. According to an officer who gave testimony at Kelley's trial, "Kelley climbed up a playground structure after police gave an order for attendees to leave the playground, and slid down a slide, which deposited her outside the caution tape," and "then re-entered the playground by ducking under the caution tape, climbed the structure again and slid down again."
Kelley "has been an outspoken voice on the Weare School Board," the Monitor noted, "advocating for masks to be optional in schools.
But the judge in the case, Edwin Kelly, found insufficient evidence to convict Kelley, saying, "The issue really comes down to how quickly somebody has to abide by a lawful order."
"There was nothing I observed in that video that would suggest to me that there was disrespect" toward the police on that occasion, Judge Kelly explained.
The traffic stop arrest may prove to be a different matter. Deputy Police Chief John Thomas characterized the incident as one in which there was "No respect to the officers," Raw Story noted. "It was very sad to see how these folks carried themselves in front of their children and how they treated the officers that day," Thomas added.
Like the playground incident, Kelley's verbal abuse of the officers was captured on video. In the clip posted on Twitter, the officers urge Kelley to "calm down" and "take a breath" and attempt to loosen her restraints as she screams that they hurt, but Kelley keeps pulling away.
"I'm making sure that this can be seen on video," Kelley tells the police in a much calmer voice. "So that my husband can see how fucking tight it is, for when we sue the shit out of you."
Watch the video in the tweet embedded below:
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
