Married Ohio High School Teacher Charged For Arranging To Meet A Minor For Sex

A married Ohio high school teacher is accused of attempting to meet up with a 14-year-old girl for sex and is now facing federal child pornography charges. Additionally, he allegedly thought he was conversing with the girl's mother on a messaging app, but it was instead with an undercover agent, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

Details about the case

Kevin Hedrick, 37, of New Franklin was located by investigators using the identity Mike Smith on the messaging platform Kik. Hedrick believed he was speaking with the 28-year-old mother of two underage girls, but in reality, he was conversing with a U.S. Secret Service agent, according to an FBI affidavit in support of a criminal complaint. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Image credit: thepostnewspapers.com[/caption] Furthermore, Hedrick, a social studies teacher at Medina High School, has been charged in federal court in Cleveland with two counts of child pornography - receipt of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and enticing or coercing a minor to engage in prostitution or any criminal sexual activity. Also read: La Vergne Police Department Sex Scandal: 5 Police Officers Dismissed And 3 Suspended According to court filings, he is also charged with accessing his Kik account over the school district's internet services, where investigators allegedly discovered hundreds of photos of child pornography featuring kids between the ages of 7 and 13. In addition, the affidavit stated that Hendrik allegedly started communicating with the secret service agent last October in a Kik chatroom called "Ohio Chastity Key Holders."

More details

The married Ohio high school teacher is said to have replied to the undercover agent's chatroom post there, where she had pretended to be the mother of two girls, ages 5 and 14. In addition, Hedrick allegedly said yes when the "mother" asked him if he wanted to have sex with her and her adolescent daughter. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] Image credit: PEOPLE[/caption] Moreover, Hedrick planned to meet the agent in a hotel room in October, but he never showed up. According to the affidavit, when later questioned about the Kik messages, Hedrick allegedly said he had "fantasized about having sexual relations with the woman and her 14-year-old daughter, but qualified the chats as only descriptive fantasies." On another note, the school system placed Hedrick on paid leave on October 24. Donald J. Malarcik Jr., Hedrick's attorney, informed PEOPLE that Hedrick has resigned as of January 6 and will "never teach again." He is currently imprisoned in a federal prison in Youngstown, Ohio. And he is scheduled for a detention hearing in federal court on January 13.