First Openly Transgender State Legislator in New Hampshire Arrested for Distributing “Child Sexual Abuse Images”

On Thursday, former state Rep. Stacie Marie Laughton was arrested for distributing images depicting child sexual abuse.  According to UnionLeader.com:

On Tuesday, June 20, Nashua police responded to a local facility for a juvenile matter, officials said in a release. Officers spoke with individuals there who indicated Laughton allegedly distributed sexually explicit images of children, police said.

Detectives from the Special Investigations Division applied for and were granted a warrant for Laughton’s arrest. She was arrested Thursday with distribution of child sexual abuse images. She was also charged with three additional counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images, Nashua police said.

The first openly transgender person elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives and perhaps the country, Laughton, quickly resigned the seat shortly after the 2012 victory when a felony conviction from 2008 came to light.  Laughton was convicted on conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and was forbidden from holding public office until 2018 when the suspended sentence ended. 

Laughton was also convicted of calling in a hoax bomb threat at the Southern NH Medical Center in 2015 and was admitted to a mental health and addiction treatment facility in lieu of a suspended six-month sentence.  In addition to the recent arrest for distributing “child sex abuse images”, the disgraced former Rep. was also arrested in September 2022 and again in November 2022 for violating a protective order.  

😑 According to published reports, Laughton was arrested for stalking in 👉September 2022, 👉and again later that same year. Laughton was arrested on a warrant in Hudson on a stalking order charge, and accused by police of communicating with the victim on social media on Nov. 8.… https://t.co/8HxCNQjVhT pic.twitter.com/PUtaWzrbm5

— LesbianForTrump 🏳️‍🌈 #FightForTrump (@CredibleUFO) June 23, 2023

In the November 2022 mid-term election, Laughton somehow won another election despite the convictions and other arrests.  However, when Laughton failed to show up for swearing in on Organization Day in December 2022, the NH Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley called for Laughton to resign.

Democrat state Rep. Timothy Horrigan, in a still-published tweet from Nov. 2022, called Laughton “basically a good person” that is “not violent, abusive or harmful to anyone but herself.”

FWIW, Rep.Laughton is a lifelong Granite Stater.

She’s gotten into a lot of trouble over the years & she keeps getting into trouble, but she’s basically a good person. She’s not violent or abusive, or harmful to anyone other than herself.

— Timothy Horrigan (@TimothyHorrigan) November 15, 2022