He’s charged with producing transporting and receipt of child pornography.
Baltimore, Md (KM) A Carroll County Public School teacher has been indicted by a federal grand jury on child pornography charges. The US Attorney’s Office for Maryland says Kenneth Brian Fischer, 40, of Westminster was charged by the panel with production of child pornography, attempted production of child pornography, transportation of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.
The Grand Jury returned the eight-count indictment on Wednesday, May 2nd.
Federal officials say Fischer was employed by the Carroll County Public School System when he used social media applications Kik and Grindr to meet and communicate with underage males for the purpose of enticing and directing the minors to produce depictions of sexually explicit conduct and send them to Fischer.
In August, 2017, Fischer was identified by law enforcement after he communicated on Grindr with an undercover agent posing as a minor boy. Following that, a search warrant was executed on Fischer’s home in Westminster, where authorities confiscated electronic devices, including a cell phone which revealed that Fischer had been communicating with five real minors between November, 2014, and September, 2017, when he was arrested.
The US Attorney’s Office says Fischer had communicated with five underage boys to encourage them to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the producing child pornography. He also sent e-mail messages with videos of one of the boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the US Attorney;s Office says. He also received an image of a boy engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Fischer has been in custody on related charges since September, 2017.
The case was brought forth as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the US Department of Justice which combats the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Federal officials say an is not a finding of guilt, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
By Kevin McManus