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Date: 08-17-2017

Case Style:

United States of America v. Stephen Kyle Goodlett

Eastern District of Kentucky Federal Courthouse - Louisville, Kentucky

Case Number: 3:17-cr-00002-DJH

Judge: David J. Hale

Court: United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (Jefferson County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: A. Spencer McKiness

Defendant's Attorney: Christopher A. Spedding

Description: Louisville, KY - Former High School Principal Guilty Of Transporting Child Pornography - Admitted he transferred images from phones confiscated from students, to his personal thumb drive, without their consent or knowledge and shared the images on a Russian website

A former Larue County, Kentucky, High School Principal pleaded guilty on August 15, 2017 in United States District Court, before U.S. District Judge David J. Hale, to transporting child pornography and possessing child pornography that had been transported in interstate commerce.

Goodlett faces additional State charges in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in Hardin County. Goodlett was initially charged by federal criminal complaint on December 19, 2016 and by federal grand jury indictment on January 4, 2017.

According to the plea agreement, on September 2, 2016, Elizabethtown police received a child sexual exploitation complaint from a female who discovered nude photographs of her that had been uploaded to a website that allowed users to anonymously post sexually explicit images and videos of people and identified the geographic area where the depicted person lived. The photographs are often accompanied by the first and last initial of the person in the photographs. The complainant viewed the images from the website and told police she was 15 years old when the nude photographs were created with a cell phone.

Elizabethtown Police requested and received the detailed IP address information for the person responsible for uploading the images. The IP address was registered to Kyle Goodlett of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The defendant was the Assistant Principal at Larue County High School from July 4, 2012, until he was promoted to Principal on July 1, 2013 and held that position until he was terminated on October 19, 2016. Goodlett was principal while the complainant was a student there and had access to her nude images when he confiscated her cell phone. The complainant was a student at Larue County High School during that time.

On October 13, 2016, the Kentucky State Police executed a search warrant at Goodlett’s Elizabethtown residence and a preview of his electronic devices, including his iPhone and an eternal hard drive, yielded 60 files of child sexual exploitation.

Further, on December 12, 2016, KSP received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stating that several images discovered in Goodlett’s Dropbox account contained images of known minor victims including the complainant and five images from an identified minor female.

Goodlett signed a waiver of his rights and agreed to a recorded interview with KSP Detectives. Goodlett admitted to KSP that he was addicted to pornography and that he transferred images from phones confiscated from students to his personal thumb drive without their consent or knowledge. Goodlett stated he would take the images and share them to a Russian website with the intent of trading for more images. Goodlett told KSP he used his iPhone and laptop to view the images. A forensic review revealed Goodlett possessed 436 images and 11 videos of child pornography as defined by 18 USC Section 2256(8).

If convicted, Goodlett faces no less than five years in prison and no more than 40 years. Further, Goodlett could be fined up to $500,000 and serve a period of supervised release of at least five years and up to and including a lifetime period of supervised release.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Securities Investigations with assistance from Kentucky State Police and the Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Police Department.

***

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

Outcome: Guilty

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

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