Former Biddeford Middle School Ed Tech Sentenced to 3+ Years for Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material

PORTLAND, Maine: A Biddeford man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for possessing child sexual abuse materials.

Chief U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy sentenced Jesse Kiesel, 49, to 44 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $7,500 in monetary assessments applicable to defendants in child sexual exploitation cases and $4,000 in restitution. He pleaded guilty on July 21, 2022.

According to court documents, in April 2021, Kiesel engaged in an internet chat 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 images of his erect penis to the undercover officer. Following the execution of a search warrant at his residence, numerous sexually explicit images of minors were recovered from his computer. According to court documents, at the time of his arrest, Kiesel was employed as an Ed Tech II at Biddeford Middle School.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case with assistance from the Biddeford Police Department, the Newbury (MA) Police Department and the United States Marshals Service.

To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt or production of child pornography: Child sexual abuse material – "child pornography" – captures the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. These images document victims’ exploitation and abuse, and they suffer re-victimization each time the images are viewed. File a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at https://report.cybertip.org/ or 1-800-843-5678. Your report will be forwarded to a law enforcement agency for investigation and action. If you have an emergency that requires an immediate law enforcement response, call 911 or contact your local police or sheriff’s department.

Project Safe Childhood: This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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Updated 01/23/23: reporting information added