Stacie Marie Laughton pleaded guilty in court to charges of child sexual abuse. She was one of America’s first state legislators who identified as transgender.
Laughton was 39 when he was arrested in 2023 for four counts of distribution child sexual abuse images. Sgt. John Cinelli is the Nashua Police Department’s public information officer. He said that investigators had been tipped after visiting an area juvenile facility.
He said, “They talked to reporting parties who indicated that Laughton distributed.” Detectives from the Special Investigations Division were assigned to the case. The warrant was granted after they applied and received it.
According to WMUR (local outlet), Laughton pleaded to guilty to several federal charges of child exploitation on Monday. Laughton is identified by authorities using feminine pronouns. He’s accused of working together with his former girlfriend Lindsay Groves at Creative Minds Daycare Center in Massachusetts to exploit the children.
Groves was a former daycare employee who took naked photos of children in 2022 and sent the pictures to Laughton, who served as the New Hampshire House of Representatives at the time. Fox News revealed this.
Laughton, a biological male who presents as female, was elected to the state legislature in 2012. However, he was not seated because it was discovered that he was involved in credit card fraud. Laughton, a transgender male who appears as a female in public, was the first state legislator to be elected at that time.
In 2008, he was sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit fraud on credit cards and falsifying evidence.
Laughton resigned in the end and never was seated. He did try to run again at the special election that followed. The re-filing was denied after Laughton was found to be ineligible for 10 years due to his fraud conviction.
Laughton, who was originally arrested in 2004, was again arrested in 2015 after he called in a threat to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. The incident was attributed to “mental illness .”
The state allowed him to run again for office in 2019. He won that election a year after.
Laughton’s legal problems continued to persist, and he was arrested again in July 2021 for seven counts of false information. The law enforcement agency accused the transgender legislator of using the 911 texting system to abuse the state.
Laughton won a second term in 2022, but had to resign after he was arrested again. He was charged with stalking in Hudson, New Hampshire.
