County sorts through slew of charges on felon with long, long rapsheet

Stephanie Lee MacDonald (Strafford County Jail photo)

DOVER - One of the area's most infamous miscreants ever was scheduled to have a hearing in Strafford Superior Court on Monday on 24 separate charges, including her official expulsion from the county's drug court, but the prosecutor handling the case said instead they have "requested the case be scheduled for a plea."

Stephanie Lee MacDonald, 42, a former transient, is now housed at the New Hampshire Women's Prison after being transferred there from the Strafford County Jail on Aug. 15.

Here latest arrest came last Dec. 18 when she allegedly attempted "to take a firearm from Dover Police Officer Nate Gurnsey against his will, and Officer Nate Gurnsey being a law enforcement officer who was engaged in the performance of official duties as a Police Officer for the City of Dover."
The charge is a Class B felony punishable by three and a half to seven years in state prison.
MacDonald famously pleaded guilty to some 50 charges including drug possession, theft and assault on July 30, 2021, and was placed in a ride service car that was to take her to an inpatient treatment facility, former Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi said at the time.
"She left in a car headed for a treatment facility, but just got out of the car and left," Velardi said.
According to a Hooksett police press release, at 3:02 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2021, Police Officers "were dispatched to 30 Market Drive, the Market Basket parking lot, for a report of a fight involving a male and female."
It was learned from store employees that MacDonald had stolen a bottle of wine and was leaving the store parking lot.
"When one of Market Basket's employees confronted MacDonald, she raised the bottle of wine and struck the employee," Sgt. Mike Zappala of the Hooksett Police Department said at the time of the arrest. "A struggle ensued between the employee and MacDonald until other officers arrived on scene."
MacDonald admitted to what occurred and was arrested for robbery, he said.
MacDonald was also charged with willful concealment, obstructing government administration, simple assault and criminal threatening.
MacDonald was later terminated from drug court.
The 50 charges MacDonald pleaded guilty to in 2021 went as far back as July 2015 when she was living on Franklin Street in Somersworth and arrested three times in two months for trafficking drugs including heroin and crack.
The 50 charges adjudicated in July 2021 comprised criminal activities including drug possession and trafficking, thefts and assaults over a six-year period.

According to the Strafford County website, "The Strafford County Drug Court is a specialty court program that connects non-violent, felony-level, substance-abusing offenders and NH State Prison Parolees who meet the same criteria, sentenced out of Strafford County Superior Court, to an integrated system of intensive alcohol and drug treatment in the community, combined with case management, strict court supervision and progressive incentives and sanctions. "