A former Democratic New Hampshire state representative, Stacie-Marie Laughton, has been arrested and charged with distribution of child sexual abuse images. The 39-year-old, former democratic lawmaker was born Barry Charles Laughton Jr.. On Thursday, she was arrested on four felony counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images. She is being held by Nashua Police, after her arraignment at a New Hampshire court on Friday.
A self-identified transgender woman, Laughton, was arrested just days after her former romantic partner, 38-year-old Lindsay Groves, a former child daycare employee, was arrested and arraigned on federal counts of sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography.
According to a report by the Boston Herald-
“The Nashua Police, which also disseminated a press release on Groves’ arrest, announced Laughton’s arrest late Thursday evening. While police indicated to local media that the two cases are related, the details were sparse. The affidavit filed in Grove’s case alleges that she at least texted to an unidentified “Person 1” four images — four also being the number of counts against Laughton — of nude children, both boys and girls, who she worked with at the daycare center. The details suggest that Laughton is “Person 1” in the federal affidavit, but no law enforcement source has confirmed this.”
-Boston Herald
Reportedly, over 2,500 texts between Groves and Laughton were allegedly recovered by Federal prosecutors. These purportedly included, messages about, and the transfer of, explicit photos Groves took of children while working at Creative Minds Daycare in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.
The latest, in a string of arrests dating back over a decade for Laughton, this week’s discovery is yet another example of the troubled past Laughton has demonstrated, since she was first elected to the New Hampshire legislature in 2012. She was one of the first openly transgender individuals to be elected to public office in the country.
When it was revealed she was still on probation, after serving a four-month stint in prison on felony identity and credit card fraud charges in 2008, she was unable to serve her term in office Reportedly, in 2015, she was arrested for making a bomb threat against the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. She later, regarding the act, plead a defense of” mental illness”. Laughton said at the time-
“I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated for a long time, and I didn’t have medication,”... “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, and it was totally out of character for me. I have put a lot behind me, and I never thought I would do this in a million years.”
Stacie-Marie Laughton
However, Laughton was arrested and charged with abusing the local 911 emergency system, in July of 2021.
According to a Reduxx report-
“Between May and July 2021, she sent seven texts to Nashua 911, prompting police officers to respond to her address. On each occasion, they determined there was no emergency,”... “At the time, Laughton denied sending the texts and claimed that she was being ‘spoofed’ by an unknown perpetrator.”
-Reduxx
Laughton, despite her lengthy criminal past, continued to seek office in the New Hampshire legislature. She was again reelected in 2022. However, she resigned 15 days after the election, never serving a day of her second term. This was because it soon became known that she had been arrested for allegedly stalking a woman in the months leading up to the election.
According to Nashua Police Department’s, Sergeant John Cinelli, this current investigation began Tuesday when officers-
“spoke with reporting parties that indicated Laughton distributed sexually explicit images of children.” adding …“Detectives from the special investigations division were assigned to further the investigation. They applied for and were granted a warrant for Laughton’s arrest,”
-Sergeant John Cinelli, Nashua Police Department
“To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace”
-Malcolm X