Middle school employee arrested for child pornography

Portland, Maine: A brief press release appeared on the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood website on Friday afternoon announcing the arrest of 48-year-old Jesse Kiesel, an employee at Biddeford Middle School where he held the position of Ed Tech II.

Kiesel was scheduled to make his first appearance in court at 2:00 pm today via videoconference where he will answer to charges of possession of child pornography and attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

According to the release, Kiesel spoke with an undercover officer in April of this year. He believed the officer was a 13-year-old female, and is accused of steering "the conversation towards the topics of sex and sexual contact" and eventually transmitted graphic images of himself to the officer.

"Following the execution of a search warrant at Kiesel's residence, numerous images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were recovered from his computer."

It is unclear if the Biddeford School District has suspended Kiesel at this time. WGME reports that the district learned of his arrest through the police department.

If convicted Kiesel faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison and $250,000 fine on each of the charges.