MANCHESTER, N.H. — A Granite State lawyer is now in federal custody after authorities say she brought an underage girl to Canada and forced her to perform sexual acts in front of a camera.
Lisa Biron, 43, of Manchester has been ordered held pending her January trial on federal sexual exploitation and child porn charges.
Biron — arrested last week on those charges — was already facing seven counts of possession of child abuse images in Manchester District Court, where a criminal complaint alleges she had five videotapes and two photographs of an underage female engaged in sexual conduct with an unknown male.
Federal authorities said in a seven-count indictment that Biron “did knowingly employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce a minor child … to engage in sexually explicit conduct,” taking a young teen girl from New Hampshire to Ontario, Canada.
The allegations stunned neighbors, who say they were long suspicious of rowdy partying at Biron’s home.
“I wanted to call the cops months ago. There just seemed to be something strange going on there, but it was just people hanging out,” said one neighbor.
Biron, a licensed lawyer in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, lists her employment at a Manchester law firm, adding that she has worked there for six months. According to court documents, she represented the Liberty Assembly of God church in Concord earlier this year in a tax dispute with the city, working alongside the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Arizona-based group of lawyers.
The state Division for Children, Youth and Families wrote in a letter that Biron would have a hearing at the Manchester Family Division related to state charges but did not say what the hearing was about.
Maggie Bishop, DCYF’s director, said she could not confirm if her office was investigating Biron, but said, speaking generally, the agency is often called in after any allegations of abuse involving a minor, with its involvement remaining “long-term” if the “offender is some parental or care-giving role.”
Biron lived on tight-knit Pratt Court, where neighbors said for months groups of men congregated at Biron’s home.
After she and her husband split roughly two years ago, neighbors said they noticed groups of men visiting the home late at night accompanied by loud music and gatherings on the front lawn.
