A Biddeford Middle School employee has been charged in federal court with possessing child pornography and attempting to send obscene material to a minor.
Jesse Kiesel, 48, will appear in U.S. District Court in Portland for the first time Monday. In an affidavit, police allege he sent explicit images to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a 13-year-old girl online, and a search at his Biddeford home uncovered child pornography on his computer.
Kiesel is an ed tech who works with special education students in the middle school. Biddeford Superintendent Jeremy Ray said Kiesel has been on paid administrative leave since the district first learned of the investigation, in April, and he has not received any information that suggests Kiesel had inappropriate contact with any students.
“This was brought to us in April, and we immediately took action to place him out,” Ray said.
Defense attorney John Webb is representing Kiesel.
“We haven’t seen any evidence at this point,” Webb said Friday. “We haven’t spoken to the government. But once we do, we’ll evaluate the case, and we’ll make a decision on how to proceed.”
Court documents show a judge issued an arrest warrant Thursday, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff said Kiesel will be in custody at least until his hearing on Monday.
Ronald Philips, a task force officer with Homeland Security Investigations in Maine, detailed the investigation in an affidavit that was unsealed Friday. He wrote that Kiesel allegedly exchanged sexual messages on social media in April with the undercover officer from Massachusetts, whom he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, eventually sending explicit images of himself.
Investigators then obtained a search warrant and seized a computer and other electronic devices from Kiesel’s home in May, according to the affidavit. They later found “numerous” images of child pornography on the computer.
The affidavit also says Kiesel agreed to speak to investigators during the search at his home.
“Kiesel believes that he has an addiction,” the affidavit said. “Kiesel stated that he has never acted on ‘any of that stuff’ and has ‘never hurt anybody.'”
If convicted, Kiesel faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge.
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