http://m.journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/alexandria-embroiled-in-feud-with-laughinghouses/article_7c8df80c-8e3f-5ce1-90fa-041567449c5f.html?mobile_touch=trueALEXANDRIA -- A long-standing feud is simmering here, and some say it's tearing the tiny Thayer County village apart.
This is not a Hatfield and McCoy-type feud, where two families and their descendants fight each other for generations.
The situation in Alexandria is more complex, and it revolves around Richard and Judy Laughinghouse, who moved to town in March 2007.
They lived in Alexandria from 1992 to 1994, too, and they once owned a liquor store in nearby Fairbury. Both have family in the area. They say they planned to make Alexandria their retirement home.
"I was appreciated like a tick," Richard Laughinghouse said of the second time they moved here. "This is not a friendly community."
Some residents strongly disagree. They say the Laughinghouses are the ones making Alexandria an undesirable place to live.
"The problem is nobody will move there because this thing has spread," said Hebron attorney Benjamin Murray, who represents the Alexandria village board. "People have heard about the troubles."
He's referring to a tangled web of allegation, rumor, innuendo, lawsuits and protection orders that have got the attention of the Thayer County Sheriff's Office, the Nebraska State Patrol and the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.
Town bully?
Some Alexandrians accuse Richard Laughinghouse of being a bully and waging a campaign of intimidation and terror. They say he has patrolled the town at night carrying a baseball bat and flashing a concealed weapon.
Laughinghouse vehemently denies the allegations. He said the bat incident did occur, but someone was impersonating him.
"He's never threatened anybody," said his wife. "He's never hurt anyone. He's helped almost everybody in this town in the last years we've been here -- even the ones who have filed protection orders against him."
Members of the attorney general's staff have met with concerned residents, but spokeswoman Suzanne Gage said there's no ongoing investigation.
"We encouraged them to report any unlawful activity to our office," she said.
In October 2014, three women in Alexandria got protection orders from Thayer County District Court against Richard Laughinghouse, alleging that he harassed them, trespassed and dumped trash on private property. They say he intimidated people by carrying and flashing a concealed weapon and making threats.
"I am very afraid of Mr. Laughinghouse," Pauline Disney wrote in her request for a protection order.
Laughinghouse said he was never interviewed, ticketed, warned or arrested in connection with any of the protection orders. He said he and his wife have permits to carry concealed weapons, as is their constitutional right.
He carries a weapon because he worries about stray dogs in town, he said, and he denies ever using a gun to intimidate anyone.
The Laughinghouses say they have been harassed by townspeople who have thrown rocks at him, that beer bottles and trash have been tossed into their yard and their house has been egged.
After the protection orders were granted, Thayer County Sheriff David Lee visited the couple's home and asked Richard Laughinghouse to surrender all of the firearms in his possession, which he did, according to documents filed in Thayer County District Court.
On Nov. 19, 2014, the Nebraska State Patrol asked him by letter to relinquish his concealed carry permit. Instead, he filed a lawsuit against Thayer County, County Attorney Daniel Werner and the sheriff seeking to get his guns back.
Village board v. Laughinghouses
The Laughinghouses are also at odds with the village board and the way it runs the town of 177 people 80 miles southwest of Lincoln.
"They come to meetings and sit in the back and videotape the proceedings and put them on YouTube," Murray, the village's attorney, said of the Laughinghouses. "They think people are doing things wrong -- mismanaging funds and things like that."
Richard Laughinghouse said he believes people should hold their government accountable and that there's something amiss with the board. He's pushed without success for a forensic audit of financial records, saying village records have not been audited for eight years.
"We believe there is a lot of wrongdoing in the financial documents," said Beatrice attorney Dustin Garrison, who represents the Laughinghouses. "We're still investigating, and I don't feel comfortable commenting any further."
But Murray said the village clears matters through the League of Nebraska Municipalities and the Attorney General's Office and has an accountant look over its books and budgets annually.
He said there's no requirement for an audit as long as the village submits a waiver to the state. Still, Murray said, there will be one this year because the village just completed a large waste lagoon project.
Judy Laughinghouse said she and her husband moved to Alexandria eight years ago to try to improve the community. She said they tried to open a restaurant but were scoffed at by village leaders.
"They don't want to do anything to improve anything," she said.
Meanwhile, the couple have been doing their own review of village board records. They spent three Saturday mornings a month copying everything from contracts to receipts from April until Aug. 1, when Murray closed the village office because people were scared to go there.
"I think literally they want every piece that has come through the village in the last 10 years," he said. "They want every document."
On Aug. 12, the couple filed a lawsuit asking the judge to order the village to reinstate normal business hours. Now, people who want to see Clerk Donna Rut must make an appointment.
"It's a frivolous lawsuit in my opinion," Murray said, adding state law does not require village clerks to keep regular office hours.
In an effort to get some traction on the financial audit, Richard Laughinghouse ran as a write-in candidate for a seat on the five-member village board last year.
He claims the three women filed for the protection orders right before the election as part of a smear campaign. He said someone also placed flyers in mailboxes showing mug shots of him and his wife and noting charges against the couple in 2006 in Georgia. "You should know your candidates," the flyers said.
Richard Laughinghouse said the allegations of a breach in fiduciary responsibility in Georgia were unfounded and were dismissed.
In Nebraska, he said most of his troubles with Alexandria started after he and his wife remodeled a house for a woman in 2013. He said they spent about $17,000 on the project but had to sue the homeowner to collect. So far, he said, they've recovered about $3,000.
Deputies monitor meetings
At the request of the village board, Sheriff Lee has had deputies attend its meetings "more times than not in the past several months."
"If they are not at the meeting, they will be in the area," he said.
The sheriff noted that his office provides law enforcement services for other towns if asked, and it's not uncommon to have a deputy at village board or town meetings if controversial issues or concerns are being considered.
The Laughinghouses' attorney says they are not a threat to the community, and "there are people making false allegations about my clients about various things."
"The bottom line here is that there are certain people in Alexandria who have been there for a long time and they want my people out of Alexandria," Garrison said. "And they are going to do whatever they can to make it happen."
Doenne Brown, who moved to Alexandria three years ago, agrees.
"It's really a caustic community," Brown said. "The village board has a tendency to pass ordinances that target individuals. They are being targeted unfairly. ... The restraining orders are hogwash."
The Laughinghouses are finally fed up, and they've been trying to sell the two houses and 10 lots they own in town for the past year.
"They want us to move," Richard Laughinghouse said. "They want us out of here."
Town attacking resident who acts within the boundaries of the law. What's interesting is the comments at the bottom of the article. Implied threats, accusations and insinuations an attorneys ball field. Eric Holder said " We are a NATION OF COWARDS " he was more correct than incorrect. Where's the support for one who is in the right?
