RALEIGH — A past history of protective orders involving a North Carolina candidate for Congress was found among 2020 court records filed in Moore County.
Shelane Etchison, an unaffiliated candidate in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District running against incumbent Republican Rep. Richard Hudson and Democratic candidate Nigel Bristow, was involved in incidents associated with her former boyfriend, Harper Wilmoth, and a woman named Lauren Cabral, who was dating Wilmoth in 2020.
Court documents reveal allegations of home invasion, computer hacking, threats and stalking leading to legal actions in Moore County. The events have not been previously reported in connection with her congressional run.
In his July 29, 2020, complaint against Etchison, Wilmoth stated he began an intimate relationship with Etchison in 2015 while they were both on active duty in the Army when he was still married.
“I was married to Claudia Wilmoth and acknowledge that I should not have been involved in an intimate relationship with Ms. Etchison and that I placed myself in jeopardy by doing so,” Wilmoth said in the complaint. “However, Ms. Etchison is emotionally unstable, engaging in behaviors such as self-mutilation, threatening suicide and striking inanimate objects while in emotional disarray. She also historically takes anti-depressants.”
Wilmoth also alleged Etchison made multiple statements that she wanted “to kill myself,” and would send photos to him of cuts she made to her own arms and legs. Wilmoth said he ended the relationship in December 2019. Wilmoth asserts Etchison refused to accept the relationship was over and began stalking him, as well as harassing him and his former wife.
In the complaint, he said he returned home from deployment in 2020 and found that on or around June 4, 2020, Etchison had broken into his home and “hacked” his computer and “stole electronic information that was private to me,” and Etchison had sent it to his former wife and was threatening to send it to the Army. It is not stated what was contained in the alleged stolen information.
Per the July 29, 2020, complaint, Wilmoth asked the court to prevent Etchison from “possessing or purchasing” a gun.
In a July 17, 2020, complaint requesting a no-contact order against Etchison, Cabral alleged that a month earlier, on June 16, 2020, Cabral’s Ring camera alerted her there was someone outside her garage.
“I was able to view the Defendant looking through my car with a flashlight and attempted to open the vehicle. The police were called,” Cabral said in her complaint. “She went to the side of my house and heard someone messing with the window. At that point I sounded the house alarm. She immediately ran up the street with her dog in hand. I called the police back to give them a description. The police caught the Defendant and she admitted to the police she was the individual I observed at my house.”
Several months later, in fall 2020, a no-contact order against Etchison was awarded to Wilmoth and a one-year protective order was issued in favor of Cabral.
“This was a difficult time in my life, characterized by confusing and deceptive circumstances with someone who was a loved and welcome member of my family for many years,” Etchison said in a statement to North State Journal.
“In the strongest terms, I have always objected to the characterization and truthfulness of the accusations and statements made against me. In North Carolina, Ex Parte no contact orders are granted from just one party’s claim, giving no due process for the accused — making it an easy tool for character defamation and misuse.
“There are no factual findings or legal conclusions in any of the court records that I committed any of the acts in which I was accused. I consented to entering temporary protective orders to simply move on with life and focus on my studies at Harvard, where I was living at the time. These orders were willfully entered by all parties with no findings of wrongdoing.
“Instead of focusing on distractions from the past drudged up by my opponent with no understanding of the situation’s context, truth, or implications for my family, we need to concentrate on the real issues that matter in this election — the ones that actually affect our families, economy, and future.”
