BIDDEFORD — An education technician at Biddeford Middle School has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor over the internet.
The federal charges against Jesse Kiesel, 48, were announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Donald Clark late Friday afternoon, July 9.
Biddeford School Superintendent Jeremy Ray said Kiesel was placed on administrative leave in April.
Federal prosecutors allege Kiesel engaged in an internet chat that month with an undercover member of law enforcement who was posing as a 13-year-old girl.
During the chat, Kiesel allegedly steered the conversation towards the topics of sex and sexual contact, and transmitted an image of his anatomy to the undercover officer, federal officials said in a news release.
Numerous images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were recovered from his computer following execution of a search warrant at his Biddeford home, the news release stated.
“The School Department immediately took action once apprised of this, are following the situation as it unfolds and will ensure Mr. Kiesel has no contact with our students,” said Ray in a telephone interview late Friday afternoon.
According to his LinkedIn account, Kiesel has been employed at Biddeford Middle School since 2017.
Ray said Kiesel had previously worked for the School Department some years ago, left, and then returned. He said Kiesel was properly credentialed with the Maine Department of Education.
On Friday, Ray said he could offer no further comment.
Attorney John Webb is representing Kiesel.
“We haven’t seen the evidence yet and haven’t talked to the government yet,” said Webb. “But we will evaluate the case, and decide how we are going to proceed.”
According to an affidavit on file with the federal court filed by Task Force Officer Ronald Phillips of Homeland Security Investigations, a search warrant executed at Kiesel’s home turned up a computer that allegedly contained numerous images believed to be of child pornography, including photographs of minor girls in various stages of undress and a video that included a sex act.
In his affidavit, Phillips wrote that Kiesel agreed to take part in a voluntary interview and told investigators he used chat websites to engage in private conversations with juveniles. He allegedly told investigators that children sent explicit images of themselves to him in chats, and when that happened, he ended the conversation. He allegedly admitted to sending an explicit photo of himself to a juvenile “maybe once,” said he has used online chats since the 1990s and that his chats with young people started about a year ago. He allegedly told the investigator he believed he had an addiction. According to the affidavit, Kiesel told the investigator he never acted on “any of that stuff,” and “never hurt anybody.”
An earlier affidavit prepared by Phillips seeking the search warrant noted his department received information that had originated from a foreign law enforcement agency indicating that someone with a specific SnapChat display name had engaged in an online communication with an undercover agent posing as an adolescent girl. The SnapChat name was traced to Kiesel, who used his private email address as a contact for the account and his school email address as a backup, the affidavit stated. He allegedly used a different screen name on another online platform that was administered in Shanghai, China.
Late Friday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Noah Falk, who is prosecuting the case, said Keisel remains in federal custody after his arrest at his home earlier in the day. He was to appear at U.S. District Court in Portland by video conference on Monday, July 12.
If convicted, Kiesel faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge.
Biddeford Police Department, Newbury (Massachusetts) Police Department and the United States Marshals Service are assisting Homeland Security Investigations in the case.
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