Embattled Concord Councilor Embraces ‘Agent Of Chaos’ Moniker, Claims She Disrupted ‘Illegal Acts’: Video

CONCORD, NH — A ward city councilor under fire for badgering staff, requesting information that invaded the privacy of others, making unfounded allegations about the handling of money, and other issues, appears to be doubling down and even bragging about receiving a letter of warning and admonishment she received last week from Concord’s mayor.

Mayor Byron Champlin issued the ultimatum to Ward 5 Concord City Councilor Stacey Brown on March 10 after threatening to have her removed, labeling her “an agent of chaos” due to her alarming accusations — including making and amplifying unfounded allegations, improperly using her position to access nonpublic information, wasting staff time and resources, and abusing processes, all of which had become distressful to her colleagues.

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Brown did not respond to a request for comment about the letter.

Instead, days later, she participated in a lengthy podcast with a progressive political activist from Hudson, arrested last year for attempted wrongful voting, where she embraced the moniker of being an agent of chaos and continued to make unsubstantiated allegations against the city.

On the Gracie Gato Podcast-Agents of Chaos Edition, Brown claimed her most recent issues with colleagues arose when she began questioning whether Amanda Grady Sexton, an at-large city councilor and the body’s second-longest serving member, was in conflict because she was a lobbyist for the nonprofit New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. While forwarding no specific evidence or anything else, Brown claimed Grady Sexton had a “conflict of interest, as a city councilor, making decisions … and I was really surprised by the outrage by just raising that I had a concern there was a conflict of interest.” Brown pointed to one complaint: a lack of public safety board meetings a few years ago. The public safety board is a subcommittee set up to discuss police and fire issues in the community.

On the podcast, Brown, who has been challenging the lack of transparency in reserve accounts, bordering on accusations of fraud by city staff, doubled down, claiming she was proven correct by a lengthy overview of the issue at Monday’s city council meeting. She said the finance director admitted the department had not been following the laws regarding capital reserve funds, when, it appeared, the exact opposite was true. Her accusatory tone and refusal to accept the facts, after being repeatedly shown the insinuations were not factually accurate, were among the reasons the letter was issued to her. Brown said the story should not have been about her but about the reserve accounts and accused the letter being sent to the press as “something a public affairs director would do.”

State Rep. Ellen Read, D-Newmarket, agreed with Brown’s comment, and then made the false claim Brown had uncovered a $1 million in “wasted city funds, which was really what happened.” She likened the entire incident to “tone policing” to discredit “crazy, hysterical females” who were truth tellers.

During the discussion with Gato, Brown embraced the moniker chaos agent and again accused the city and council of failing to act appropriately or legally.

“I actually kinda like that… I kind of like it,” she said of being labeled “an agent of chaos.” Brown added, “Because I’ve discovered the city is acting inappropriately regarding public funds, so if I’m disrupting illegal acts, and for that, they are calling me an ‘agent of chaos,’ I’ll own it.”

Brown also said at a legislative committee hearing, “I testified as a city councilor,” which violates the city’s undue influence rule. Brown can speak as a citizen at public meetings and hearings, but she can’t identify herself as a councilor at those hearings and meetings, something she has been warned against doing previously.

Brown also seemed to challenge the need for computer services laws banning sexual communication between adults (18, 19, or older) and boys and girls who are under 16.

The conversation arose when Clare Best, a film and television agent who lives in the state part-time and has had an obsessive fixation on the Owen Labrie sexual assault trial, believing he was framed, was speaking about the case.

Best is of the opinion that New Hampshire had not updated its computer services prohibited statute, a felony, “to be in line with modern communication methods between teenagers.”

Brown asked Best for clarification about the law, suggesting it was her recollection that it was created due to “a 41-year-old man used a computer and maybe MySpace or something to lure, what, a 13-year-old girl? That was the whole reason of that, for that law, and it was applied to (Labrie),” in a manner that seemed to suggest it would be OK for a man like Labrie to lure a child like the sexual assault victim via computer, in this case, Facebook Instant Messenger, to potentially take advantage of illegally.

Best said, “correct,” and added, in 2018, a Republican state representative introduced a bill to decriminalize computer communications between teenagers specifically because of the Labrie case. She said the Coalition lobbied heavily against the bill, and the proposal was not approved, not unlike its lobbying against HB 1675.

Patch Posts About Owen Labrie

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• Owen Labrie In Jail After Concord School Sex Assault
• Owen Labrie Asks Judge To Suspend Sex Assault Sentence
• 'Profoundly Disturbing' St. Paul's Abuse Allegations Detailed
• Criminal Investigation Opened Against St. Paul’s School Due To Sex Allegations
• St. Paul’s School Settles Civil Suit With Prout Family
• Labrie's Victim's Parents Sue St. Paul's School
• Judge Orders St. Paul's School Sexual Assaulter to Jail
• Vice Article Leads to Labrie Bail Revocation Request
• Prep School Statutory Rapist Gets Year in Jail
• Labrie Found Guilty of Statutory Rape, Other Charges
• VT Teen Arrested For Sexual Assault At St. Paul’s School

Best believed Labrie was framed despite the jury verdicts against him, which included evidence of him and the victim, Chessy Prout, communicating via Facebook IM about him targeting her for “senior salute,” a sex ritual where upperclassmen at St. Paul’s School attempt to go after girls for sexual activity. The upperclassmen would brag about “slaying” (having sex with) or attempting to “slay” as many girls as possible while also keeping tabs or scores with each other.

Best also said misdemeanor sexual assaults in 2014, like the one Labrie was convicted of, were not even reportable.

But according to online data, which varies by year, somewhere between 100 and 200 misdemeanor sexual assault charges are filed annually in New Hampshire between 2010 and 2020. They have been regularly published in Patch indictment reports across three counties since 2011, when accompanied by a felony charge.

Brown did not respond to an email requesting comment or clarification about specific information or evidence she had against Grady Sexton, what illegal acts she had disrupted, and whether she accepted Best’s argument that New Hampshire should change its computer services law, which bans adults from communicating sexually with children via social media or email.

The podcast video is posted below.

Best also made an accusation the Coalition was involved in “the management of the sex offender registry,” according to documents she had.

This process, however, is actually controlled by the state’s division of public safety, as noted online.

She also claimed the state received around $900,000 in federal funds from “the Adam Walsh Sex Offender Registry Act” (actually called “the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006,” which created “the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act”) between 2014 and 2021. Best insinuated the money was the impetus for having the list, not informing the public about sex offenders and the dangers they sometimes or may pose.

As part of the conversation, state Rep. Ellen Read, D-Newmarket, also claimed the Coalition controlled every aspect of sexual and domestic violence in the state, including nurses at the hospital level.

“There is not a single person you can go to for support… that is not connected (to the Coalition)… no advocate, no nurse, no hotline… they are all part of this umbrella organization of the Coalition that is pretty much the structure across all the coalitions of all the states,” she said.

Read said there was no accountability for public funds spent by the Coalition, which lacked oversight and was essentially “a black box” with “no transparency.”

Also Read

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• Conspiracy Theories Drive Bill Targeting New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic And Sexual Violence
• New Hampshire House Democrat's Bill Pushes Fringe Conspiracies Targeting Victims' Advocacy Group

Gato has claimed Grady Sexton would not help her years ago, when she was required to move back to New Hampshire after fleeing to her home in California.

Her relationship with Best apparently involved financial backing for a 10-part documentary film series, “Corrupt As F---,” that Gato was attempting to complete, concerning political activity in the Granite State. In 2022, she also launched a Kickstarter effort to fund the docuseries and raised $20,001 from three backers in the $575,000 effort. In 2025, Gato filed a $2 million civil lawsuit against her ex-husband and his attorney, accusing them of “years of financial sabotage and legal harassment,” which had put her life and that of her son at risk. She also lost funding from another financial backer of her film series.

Gato launched her video podcast on Substack in February.

At the time of publication, the video podcast had about 40 views.

Many of the issues raised by Read in the bill and on the podcast were refuted by the Coalition.

Lyn Schollett, the executive director of the organization, issued a nearly 3,000-word response to the points Read raised in an email in late February.

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