MANCHESTER,N.H.- A jury has found a man not guilty in a first-of-its-kind trial in the Granite State over the use of a deepfake video.

On Monday Jaxen Cole,22, was found not guilty after being accused of altering legally obtained body camera footage he claims was only intended as a work of parody.

According to court documents, in February Cole created a video he ended up posting to social media, featuring altered footage from his 2024 booking which was altered to show the officer in the video fawning over Cole, saying he was a fan of his and even asked him for his autograph.

From here the officer then reached out to Cole and asked him not to post it to social media, but Cole went against the officer’s wishes and did so, even though the officer voiced concerns over the video, because he was worried it would be seen as embarrassing and he would get in trouble with the department over it.

In its case the state argued that Cole set out to harm or embarrass the officer, while Cole’s lawyers claimed the officer nor the City of Laconia was never named, and the video was only to be seen as entertainment for Cole’s followers.

Following the jury’s decision, Cole said he was happy with the final verdict and hopes the verdict helps in future fraudulent deepfake cases.