Stacie Marine Laughton, 39, could face up to 30 years in jail after being charged with aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of children.
Stacie Marine Laughton, 39, a former Democrat representative, could face up to 30 years in jail after being charged with aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of children.
The former New Hampshire state representative was arrested after daycare worker Lindsay Groves, 38, was accused of taking explicit photographs of children aged between three to five years old in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.
Groves was reportedly in a relationship with Laughton, and the two had discussed the sexual photographs of children in more than 10,000 messages.
Department of Justice documents show several sickening conversations between the pair, who fantasized about sexually assaulting young children. Their alleged conversations were detailed in full in charging documents, but are too horrific to reproduce.
The former couple shared warped fantasies about sexual acts they wanted to perform on the children and discussed them in graphic detail, it is alleged.
According to documents Laughton told Groves to touch a child's genitals, so she took a picture and sent it to her for 'sexual gratification'.
She 'allegedly used natural bathroom breaks for the children,' such as 'routine diaper pull-up changes prior to naptime ... to take multiple photos of the prepubescent children in a private bathroom.'
Groves, a former employee at Creative Minds Early Learning Center was charged last month with sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography.
She is accused of taking naked pictures of the three- to five-year-old children and disseminating them, according to charging documents.
The charge of sexual exploitation of children can lead to a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Nashua Police Department began an investigation into the allegations after receiving an anonymous tip off.
Laughton was born a man and elected in 2012, but was unable to serve after her criminal past emerged in which she was sentenced to 10 years probation stemming from a 2008 felony conviction for credit card fraud.
State laws prohibited convicted felons from holding office until the final discharge of their sentence.
In 2012, she was elected along with two Democrats - David Cole and Mary Gorman - to represent the Hillsborgouh 31 district. The three all received more votes than both Republican challengers, Elizabeth Van Twuyver and Richard Heitmiller.
She was arrested for domestic violence/criminal mischief in 2002 and also had a sexual assault charge against a woman in 2003.
In 2015, she was arrested for making a bomb threat against the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.
In 2021, she was arrested once again for misusing the state's 911 texting system.
Despite her criminal past, Laughton still ran for a second term in 2022 and was elected to represent Nashua, New Hampshire. She was elected to represent the Hillsborough 3 district along with Democrats Cote and Fred Davis. Republican Joost Baumeister lost earning one of the three seats by about 100 votes.
However, once again, she was unable to take office having been jailed on stalking charges. She was accused of stalking Groves.
Laughton has blamed her past criminal behavior on mental illness and untreated conditions. When she resigned her House seat in 2022, she posted a video to social media about her issues.
'As of today, I'm no longer a state representative which is very disappointing, but I'm going to come back to it,' Laughton said, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. 'I will be attending mental health court and getting some counseling and trying to get my life back on track. I'm not perfect. Even in the future I still won't be perfect but I will be a better version of myself and better able to handle situations that come my way. In two years, the next state election, I will run for state representative again.'
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