NASHUA, N.H. – Stacie Marie Laughton — aka Barry Charles Laughton Jr. — is a former New Hampshire state representative and the nation’s first transgender-identifying state lawmaker. Laughton was arrested by police this week and now faces criminal charges of distributing child pornography, according to authorities.
Laughton, 39, a Democrat who previously resigned from the New Hampshire state house, is charged with four counts of distributing sexually explicit images of children, the Daily Wire reported.
Sgt. John Cinelli, the public information officer with the Nashua Police Department, said officers were dispatched to a call regarding a juvenile incident on Tuesday. Upon arrival they were told that Laughton had been distributing explicit images. The preliminary investigation eventually led to a search of the former lawmaker’s residence on Thursday, where he was taken into custody, according to the Nashua Patch.
“They spoke with reporting parties that indicated Laughton distributed sexually explicit images of children,” Cinelli said, according to the Patch. “Detectives from the special investigations division were assigned to further the investigation. They applied for and were granted a warrant for Laughton’s arrest.”
Laughton is slated to be arraigned on Friday at the Hillsborough County Superior Court-South.
Legal troubles have plagued Laughton in the past. Of note, he was convicted of a felony involving a credit card crime in 2008, according to the New Hampshire Union-Leader.
In 2012, Laughton became the first transgender-identifying individual elected as a state lawmaker. The success thrilled LGBT activists.
“I believe that at this point, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community will hopefully be inspired,” Laughton said at the time. “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman. Maybe in the next election, we’ll have a senator.”
However, not long after the election, Laughton resigned once the credit card fraud became known.
Furthermore, in 2015 Laughton reported a bomb threat to a hospital, to which he later received a six month jail sentence. His legal woes continued when he was arrested in July 2021 for providing false information to police.
