PORTLAND, Maine — A former Biddeford Middle School special education assistant has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of possession of child pornography.
Jesse Kiesel, 49, of Biddeford pleaded guilty last week to one felony count o possession of child pornography and federal prosecutors dismissed a second charge of attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor.
Prosecutors said that in April 2021 Kiesel engaged in a chat using the social media platform SnapChat and Google Hangouts with an undercover member of law enforcement posing as a 13-year-old girl.
During the chat, Kiesel steered the conversation towards the topics of sex and sexual contact, and ultimately transmitted sexually explicit photos and video to the undercover officer, according to court documents.
In May 2021, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Kisiel's home and found a computer with more than 600 photos and videos of child pornography that Kiesel had located on the "dark web," prosecutors said.
Kiesel faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 87 months.
A date for sentencing has not yet been set.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Biddeford Police Department, Newbury Police Department in Massachusetts, and the United States Marshals Service.
