PORTLAND – A former Biddeford Middle School education technician who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in July has been sentenced to 44 months in federal prison.
Jesse Kiesel, who was 48 when he was arrested in July 2021, will also serve five years supervised release; was assessed $4,000 in restitution and $10,100 in additional assessments.
He was sentenced by Judge Jon Levy at U.S. District Court in Portland on Thursday, Jan. 12.
Kiesel had been a special education technician at the middle school since about 2017. He was placed on leave by Biddeford School Department in the spring of 2021 when school officials were informed of the investigation. He later resigned, and according to court documents, surrendered his ed tech license.
Numerous images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were recovered from his computer. According to the prosecutor’s version of the case on file at the court, investigators recovered a custom-built desktop computer that was found to contain more than 600 images and video depicting child pornography. Prosecutors said the images and video were received from websites located on the “dark web,” and had been transported using the internet prior to Kiesel possessing them in Maine.
His attorney, John Webb, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Kiesel had taken responsibility for his actions, and recommended an 18 month sentence plus five years supervised release. He wrote that his client “has strived to take ownership of his actions and has deeply committed himself to treatment.”
Four individuals, including his wife, wrote reference letters on his behalf.
Kiesel agreed to a voluntary interview with law enforcement after they found the images on his computer and told investigators he used “chat” websites to engage in private conversations with juveniles. He said children sent explicit images of themselves to him in chats, and when that happened, he ended the conversation. He admitted to sending an explicit photo of himself to a juvenile “maybe once,” in the 2021 interview with law enforcement; said he had used online chats since the 1990s and had started chatting with young people about a year earlier. He 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.”
Following sentencing, he was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal.
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