BOSTON — A former New Hampshire state lawmaker and the one-time associate of a girl charged with taking sexually express images of kids on the Massachusetts day care heart the place she labored has additionally been charged within the case, federal prosecutors stated Tuesday.

Stacie Marie Laughton, 39, of Nashua, New Hampshire, is charged with aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of kids, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Boston stated in an announcement.

No protection lawyer was listed for Laughton in courtroom information. She will seem in courtroom at a later date.

Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, New Hampshire, was charged final month with sexual exploitation of kids and distribution of kid pornography for allegedly taking nude images of kids at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, and texting them to a different particular person.

Prosecutors stated Tuesday {that a} preliminary forensic assessment of Groves’ cellphone allegedly revealed greater than 10,000 textual content messages between Laughton and Groves. The texts allegedly included dialogue about, and switch of, express pictures that Groves had taken of kids who look like about 3 to five years outdated.

Groves stays in state custody in New Hampshire. An e mail in search of remark was left along with her federal public defender.

Laughton, a Democrat, resigned from the New Hampshire House in December after being charged with stalking Groves.

Laughton in 2012 was believed to be the primary transgender particular person elected to a state legislature. But she resigned earlier than taking her seat after reviews surfaced about her 2008 convictions for identification fraud and falsifying proof. She efficiently ran once more in 2020 and was re-elected in 2022. She resigned in December after being jailed on the fees associated to Groves.

The cost of sexual exploitation of kids can result in a sentence of as much as 30 years in jail.

A voicemail in search of remark was left with the day care heart.

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