The Lawmaker Who Ordered the Photos

She had been called a trailblazer. In 2012, Stacie-Marie Laughton became the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature in American history. She was a Democrat. She represented Nashua. She was elected three times. And in federal court in Boston on June 19, 2026, she was sentenced to 33 years in prison for directing her then-partner to photograph the genitalia of toddlers at a Massachusetts daycare — for Laughton's own sexual gratification.

The case began not with Laughton, but with Lindsay Groves — a childcare worker at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. Groves, 42, was the one with access to the children. She was the one with the iPhone. She was the one in the bathroom. But according to federal prosecutors, it was Laughton who asked for the photographs. It was Laughton who received them. It was Laughton who told Groves what she wanted to see next.

On June 3, 2026, Groves was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distributing child pornography. She cooperated with prosecutors. She testified against Laughton.

Sixteen days later, Laughton stood before a federal judge in Boston and received eleven more years on top of that.

Together: 55 years of federal prison time for what was done to children between the ages of three and five in a daycare bathroom in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.

In November 2012, Stacie-Marie Laughton was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives from Hillsborough County, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature in the United States. The historic nature of her election made national news. What happened next made less of it.

Before she could take her seat, reports surfaced of prior felony convictions — identity fraud and falsifying evidence. Questions arose about her legal eligibility to serve. Laughton resigned before she was ever sworn in.

But she came back. In 2020, Laughton won election to the New Hampshire House again. She was re-elected in 2022. By the time federal investigators connected her to the Groves case, she had served in the legislature for multiple terms — a sitting elected official in the State of New Hampshire.

In December 2024, following her arrest on charges related to Groves — and separately, on charges of stalking Groves after the relationship ended — Laughton resigned from the legislature. In November 2025, she pleaded guilty to three federal counts of sexual exploitation of children.

The prosecutor's ask: 40 years. The sentence imposed: 33 years and a day.

According to federal court documents, the exploitation did not begin with Groves acting alone. It began with a conversation. In May or June of 2022, Laughton and Groves — then in an intimate relationship — exchanged sexualized text messages in which Laughton asked Groves to photograph nude children from Creative Minds. Groves was the one with access. Laughton was the one with the demand.

What followed, according to prosecutors, was more than a year of documented crimes. Groves photographed multiple prepubescent toddlers — all estimated between three and five years old — in the one bathroom at Creative Minds with a full-sized door, the only restroom in the facility where staff could not see inside. She used routine diaper changes and pull-up changes before naptime as her window. She sent every image to Laughton.

The two exchanged more than 10,000 text messages in a single month. Forensic review of Groves's seized iPhone 13 recovered over 2,500 deleted messages from just one four-day window in June 2023 alone. Those messages documented Groves transmitting the images in real time — and Laughton directing what she wanted to see next, including requesting that Groves place her hand on a male child's genitalia in a photograph.

Prosecutors described the pair as having "discussed using the children for sex." The children were toddlers. The youngest identified victim was three years old.

The scheme unraveled after the relationship between Laughton and Groves ended. Groves sent images to a new partner. That partner showed them to others. Those others called the police.

At 2:00 in the morning on June 21, 2023, Nashua Police and federal agents executed a search warrant at Groves's Hudson, New Hampshire home. Groves was there with her parents. She waived her Miranda rights without hesitation and gave investigators a voluntary, recorded interview.

She confirmed the relationship with Laughton. She confirmed the original request. She estimated the number of children photographed. She described the bathroom. She described the method — shirts pulled over faces, pants pulled to ankles, iPhone camera aimed down. She confirmed she sent every image to Laughton for Laughton's sexual gratification.

When shown a cropped photograph in which a star-shaped tattoo is visible on the photographer's left ankle, Groves identified herself as the photographer. Investigators confirmed: the tattoo matched.

Agents seized an iPhone 13, an iPad, and two pairs of black and pink shoes — matching the shoes visible in the photographs — from Groves's bedroom. Forensic review of the devices revealed the deleted message archive. Every piece of physical evidence corroborated the confession. Every piece of digital evidence corroborated the physical evidence.

Groves pleaded guilty on October 14, 2025. She cooperated with the government's case against Laughton and testified against her former partner in federal proceedings. On June 3, 2026, she was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

Stacie-Marie Laughton was not unknown to the criminal justice system before the federal child exploitation charges. In 2012, after her historic election to the New Hampshire House, she resigned before taking office when prior felony convictions — for identity fraud and falsifying evidence — became public and raised questions about her eligibility to serve.

She returned to the ballot in 2020 and won. She was re-elected in 2022. At some point during this period — specifically from May or June of 2022 onward — federal prosecutors say she was soliciting and receiving child sexual abuse material from her partner at a Tyngsborough daycare.

Separately, after the relationship with Groves ended in June 2023, Laughton was also charged with stalking Groves. It was in December 2024, following her jailing on those charges, that she resigned from the legislature for the final time.

She entered her federal guilty plea in November 2025 — three counts of sexual exploitation of children. She was sentenced June 19, 2026. She will serve 33 years and a day in federal prison.

The children she directed Groves to photograph were between three and five years old. They were in daycare. Their parents had trusted the adults in that building with their safety.