The family of a child who attended a Massachusetts day care center where an employee is accused of taking illicit photos of the children has filed a lawsuit against the center, claiming leadership was negligent for failing to act despite past complaints about that worker.
Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, New Hampshire, is facing criminal charges in a child sex image investigation centered around her job at the Creative Minds day care in Tyngsboro, Mass.
The lawsuit, filed by a mother identified as Jane Doe on behalf of her son, alleges that the child was sexually assaulted and abused multiple times while under Groves' care from October 2022 to June 2023. It also claims that the owner and director of Creative Minds Early Learning Center Inc. received complaints that Groves was inappropriately touching children as early as 2018. It also states that in 2022 the owner and director received another complaint about illicit photographs of children.
"Again, despite being given this information, Creative Minds took no action to remove or prevent Lindsay Groves from having access to the children and, in fact, continued to allow her to be alone with children," the suit reads.
The lawsuit accuses Creative Minds of negligence with respect to its employees and to its duty of care to the children and is seeking damages of $50,000 or more for emotional distress, medical and therapy bills and other needs.
The criminal charges against Groves are serious. Prosecutors said that from May 2022 until June, Groves took naked images of children during bathroom breaks before their naptime. A preliminary forensic review of Groves' cellphone allegedly showed over 2,500 text messages between Groves and the person on the receiving end of the photos, with messages allegedly including discussion about the photos, and the explicit photos themselves, prosecutors said.
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There were at least four sexually explicit images of children who appear to be between the ages of 3 and 5, authorities said.
Groves is being charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography, federal prosecutors said.
A second woman, Stacie Laughton, 39, of Derry, New Hampshire, is facing multiple counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images by local authorities.
Attorneys for Creative Minds Early Education previously issued this statement to NBC10 Boston:
"Creative Minds Early Education is cooperating fully with law enforcement to ensure a complete and extensive investigation into the allegations regarding a single former staff member," the statement said. "We want to ensure our families that their children's safety and provacy [sic] is one of the utmost importance. We will make every effort to support all of our families during this difficult time. We are requesting that members of the media please respect our privacy as well as the provacy [sic] of our families."
Anyone with questions about this case may call authorities at 617-748-3274.
