Stephen Kyle Goodlett, Child Pornography Possession, Kentucky 2016

Stephen Kyle Goodlett, 37, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, is behind bars for nine years after admitting he collected and traded child pornography pulled from cell phones he confiscated as principal of Larue County High School. Sentenced to 108 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge David J. Hale, Goodlett also faces a decade of supervised release following his term. The former educator, once trusted to safeguard students, instead exploited them—stealing intimate images without consent and sharing them on a Russian-based website dedicated to illicit sexual content.

Goodlett’s crimes unraveled in September 2016 when a 15-year-old female student discovered nude photos of herself uploaded to an anonymous exploitation site. The site, which hosted explicit images tagged with victims’ initials and geographic data, traced back to an IP address registered to Goodlett. At the time, he was serving as principal at the high school the girl attended—giving him direct access to her phone after confiscating it for a violation of school policy. Instead of securing the device, he transferred the images to his personal thumb drive.

Kentucky State Police executed a search warrant at Goodlett’s Elizabethtown home on October 13, 2016. A preliminary scan of his iPhone and external hard drive revealed at least 60 files of child sexual exploitation material. A deeper forensic analysis later uncovered 436 images and 11 videos of child pornography as defined under 18 U.S.C. Section 2256(8). The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children flagged multiple files in his Dropbox account, including five images of a known minor female and additional photos of the original complainant.

During a recorded interview with KSP detectives, Goodlett waived his rights and confessed. He admitted to a pornography addiction and detailed how he systematically traded stolen student images on a Russian platform to obtain more illicit content. He used his personal iPhone and laptop to view, store, and distribute the material. None of the students whose phones were seized knew their private images were being copied or shared—betraying a sacred trust held by every school official.

United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman didn’t mince words: “Parents must be able to place their trust in educators to provide a safe learning environment for our kids. Mr. Goodlett not only violated this trust but exploited students for his own foul gratification. His significant punishment is well-earned.” Goodlett was initially charged via criminal complaint on December 19, 2016, and formally indicted by a federal grand jury on January 4, 2017. He remains in federal custody and now faces additional state charges in Hardin County.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with support from the Kentucky State Police and Elizabethtown Police Department. It falls under Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative aimed at combating the sexual exploitation of minors. In a system with no parole, Goodlett’s 108-month sentence stands as a grim reckoning for a man who turned a position of authority into a weapon of predation.

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