New federal charges added for Lexington man facing rape, child porn accusations
New federal charges have been filed against a Lexington man accused of sexually assaulting a child and storing more than 500 child pornography files.
Donald Woodroe Kiser III, 36, was previously charged with 10 counts of child pornography, one count of rape and three counts of sexual abuse in Fayette County court.
The federal charges are production of visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possession of matter depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court records.
An affidavit filed by FBI Agent Christopher Faas indicates 500 files of suspected child pornography — more than what was previously indicated by state court records — were found on Kiser’s laptop, which was seized from his home, Some of the files appeared to have been captured with Kiser’s phone, and another 198 suspected child porn files were allegedly found on Kiser’s external hard drive.
Kiser initially faced child pornography charges after Lexington police investigators found some of that material on his personal devices, according to court records. The rape and sexual abuse charges were added after investigators allegedly confirmed Kiser was the one committing the sexual abuse in some of the child pornography.
Kiser’s victim was 8 years old at the time of the abuse, according to court records. Investigators interviewed someone who knew Kiser and his alleged victim and discovered that Kiser had been investigated by Child Protective Services for allegedly having inappropriate contact with the child in 2019.
Records from Child Protective Services investigations “are not publicly releasable except in the limited circumstance that the abuse led to a near fatality or fatality,” said Susan Dunlap, a spokesperson for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Metadata from the child pornography indicated that Kiser committed the alleged abuse in late 2018, according to federal court records. He was previously identified as the alleged abuser in some of the files because of tattoos, according to court records.
“I was able to identify the suspect’s hands in the images as Mr. Kiser’s due to the distinct, visible tattoos on the suspect’s hands,” Lexington Detective Tyler Chelf wrote in a criminal complaint filed into Fayette County court records.
Lexington police launched an investigation into Kiser after receiving dozens of tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding a Google account user uploading child pornography to Google Drive, according to an arrest citation. Kiser was identified as the Google account owner, according to court records.
Investigators got a search warrant for Kiser’s home on Darley Drive and seized four computers, an iPod, a cellphone and a hard drive, according to court records.
Kiser allegedly admitted to investigators that he had child pornography and said he viewed child porn for about five years, according to court records.
Not all of the pornographic files included Kiser, according to court records. Some of the files on the laptop were explicitly named with ages of the victims and language that identified what was happening in the videos, according to the affidavit filed in federal court.
Kiser was still being held in the Lexington-Fayette County Detention Center Thursday morning. He was required to be electronically monitored if he posted a bond, according to court records.
Kiser hadn’t appeared in federal court as of Thursday morning. The criminal complaint was filed against him Tuesday.
Tattoos help ID KY man after child porn found on Google Drive. More charges filed.
Lexington man charged after he uploaded child porn to Google Drive, court records say
