Who is Stacie Laughton? Former openly transgender state rep arrested for child exploitation in New Hampshire

Stacie Laughton, a 39-year-old from Nashua, New Hampshire, was arrested on Thursday, June 22, over disseminating s*xually explicit photos of children alongside a Creative Minds daycare worker. She first made headlines in 2012 for being the first transgender person to win a State House election.

Laughton was taken into custody after Lindsay Groves, a worker at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, admitted to authorities that she took multiple nude images of children in a private bathroom at the center and sent them to her former partner.

Officials said that Groves and her former partner Laughton exchanged some 2,500 text messages talking about transferring the photos of children who appear to be 3 to five years old.

The pictures were reportedly taken between May 2022 and June 2023, where Groves used the children’s natural bathroom breaks to snap explicit images. Authorities said that Stacie Laughton, who was charged with four counts of distribution of child s*xual abuse images, waived her arraignment Friday.

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Stacie Laughton, a Nashua High School graduate, was first elected in the State House election in 2012

Stacie Laughton (Image via Facebook)

Stacie Laughton, who graduated from Nashua High School South, was first elected to the New Hampshire House in 2012 but resigned before taking office after her former convictions surfaced.

Laughton, who studied at Atlantic culinary academy after high school, reportedly had several run-ins with the law dating back to 2008 when the former state rep was convicted of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, Boston Globe reported.

A few years down the line, Laughton got into trouble with the law after reporting a bomb threat at a local hospital. At the time, the former state rep admitted to suffering from mental health and addiction issues. She then spent time in a treatment facility in Vermont after being sentenced to a suspended six months jail term over the crime.

Laughton ran again for state representative and won in 2020. While serving in office as a state rep, she was arrested for sending false emergency texts in 2021. At the time, Laughton told WMUR:

“I deny the charges and I plan on fighting them. I am somebody who has been in trouble with the law in the past and I’ve come a long way.”

Despite the denial, Laughton was convicted of several of the charges that August. In 2022, Laughton was re-elected but was forced to resign after she was arrested on stalking charges.

Lindsay Groves and Stacie Laughton (Image via AlphaFox/Twitter)

At the time of her recent arrest on Thursday, Laughton was working at ALL Radio & Media, a Radio Station that she Co-Owned.

As she remained behind bars after waving her arraignment, her co-conspirator Lindsay Groves was charged with one count of s*xual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography.