Don't go past Go: Court rejects Woodburn's request to avoid prison sentence

Former Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jeffrey Woodburn is about to check into the Crowbar Motel after Coos Superior Court Judge Peter Bornstein rejected what may be his last attempt to remain free.

On Thursday, Bornstein ordered Woodburn to appear in court for sentencing, which is scheduled to take place at the earliest possible date.

Woodburn asked that his impending 30-day jail sentence be commuted to probation after two convictions for criminal damage to property. But Bornstein denied Woodburn's latest request to avoid jail time, arguing that there were no disputed facts.

“[E]”Even if the court were to consider the defendant's motion for a sentence modification on its merits, it would deny it because his sentences for malicious damage to property reflected all relevant facts and circumstances and appropriately balanced and furthered the goals of sentencing,” Bornstein wrote.

Woodburn's political career ended in 2018 when he was charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He fought the case for seven years and was able to overturn convictions for simple assault and domestic violence in 2021 by appealing to the state Supreme Court.

A second assault trial ended in a hung jury earlier this year. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella decided to drop the case rather than pursue a third trial, leaving only the two criminal damage convictions that the Supreme Court declined to revisit.

According to court documents, Woodburn bit the woman during an argument in December 2017 as she drove him home from a party. An intoxicated Woodburn demanded to be let out of the car and wanted to call a friend to give him a ride. When the woman reached for his phone, he allegedly bit her hand, according to the allegations.

Woodburn argued in his second trial this year that he acted in self-defense when he bit the woman.

As for the malicious damage to property, according to court records, Woodburn kicked the door to the woman's home and she refused to let him in about a week after the argument in the car. Earlier that year, in August 2017, he kicked her clothes dryer, destroying the appliance, according to court records.