Ex-Medina High School teacher indicted by federal grand jury on child porn charges

CLEVELAND, Ohio— A federal grand jury on Thursday handed up an indictment charging a former Medina Excessive Faculty instructor with possessing little one pornography and making an attempt to have intercourse with an undercover federal agent posing as a 14-year-old woman.

Kevin Hedrick, who taught social research, is charged with two child-pornography counts and one depend of tried coercion or enticement. He’s scheduled for arraignment on Thursday.

Hedrick’s protection legal professional Don Malarcik stated his shopper will plead not responsible and that at this stage within the continuing he’s presumed harmless.

“I sit up for reviewing the proof and responding to the allegations,” Malarcik stated. “These instances are very emotional, and there’s a tendency for folks charged with these offenses to lose the presumption of innocence.”

Hedrick, 37, turned himself into federal authorities on Jan. 6. He resigned from educating later that day. Medina college officers positioned him on go away Oct. 24, when investigators subpoenaed information associated to his use of the college’s web.

The FBI started investigating Hedrick in October when he began chatting with an undercover U.S. Secret Service agent in a Kik chatroom referred to as “Ohio Chastity Key Holders,” in accordance with an affidavit for his arrest warrant.

Hedrick responded to the put up after the agent posted a message that stated “I’ve 2 daughters,” courtroom information say.

The agent posed as a 28-year-old lady with a 14-year-old daughter and requested Hedrick if he was taken with having intercourse along with her and the teenager.

Hedrick, within the messages, described intimately intercourse acts he needed to carry out. He informed the agent that he had by no means had intercourse with anybody underage, however that he had relationships with two college students after that they had graduated, in accordance with courtroom information.

He backed out of a gathering at a lodge in Columbus as a result of he contracted COVID-19, courtroom information stated.

FBI brokers subpoenaed information from his web account and social media platforms and located he had 5 photos or movies of kid pornography on his Kik account. They depicted youngsters from 7 to 13 years previous, in accordance with courtroom information.

Brokers later searched his telephone and different digital units and located he despatched or obtained 719 photos and 281 movies containing pornography, the information say. The agent estimated that these depicted within the photos ranged in age from 13 to 19 years previous.

Hedrick throughout an Oct. 26 raid on his house admitted to FBI brokers that he messaged the secret agent and that he needed to have intercourse with the made-up 14-year-old woman, in accordance with courtroom information.

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