Port-Saukville School District employee charged with possessing child pornography

A Port Washington-Saukville School District employee who was charged Friday with three counts of possessing child pornography told authorities that he is addicted to porn, particularly that depicting teenage girls, and traded it on the internet, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

William T. Miley, a 29-year-old hardware support technician who worked at Port Washington High School, has been placed on administrative leave by the School District, according to an email from Director of Business Services Mel Nettesheim and Supt. Dave Watkins sent to parents on Thursday.

The letter states Miley, a Cedar Grove resident, “will not have access to our campus or school technology as the investigation moves forward.

“At this time, we have no reason to believe that the alleged criminal activities involved any Port Washington-Saukville students or that the employee engaged in any inappropriate behavior toward our students.”

The investigation dates to May 10, 2022, when the social media site Kik notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that four days earlier a user had uploaded pornographic files.

The files showed a girl between the ages of 10 and 13 exposing herself, a child between the ages of 6 and 9 having sex with an adult and a child between the same ages exposing herself. The last file was captioned “Pre-teen pics” and on one side of the file was a “chat” button and on the other side a play button labeled “live,” the complaint states.

One of the IP addresses used to upload the files was traced to Miley and gave authorities the information they need to secure and serve search warrants for Miley’s home and offices at Port High. Numerous electronic devices were seized.

Miley was arrested on Wednesday, March 22, which is when School District administrators first became aware that he was the subject of a criminal investigation, Nettesheim said. Miley was  immediately placed on administrative leave, she said. 

During a bail hearing Friday, Ozaukee County Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay said Miley accessed Kik almost exclusively from his cell phone and most often while he was at Port Washington High School, saying that he may have forgotten to turn off the WiFi on his phone and connected to the school’s network.

On the day of his arrest, Miley agreed to answer questions and told a detective that he has gone through “spurts of pornographic addiction” and that he likes pornography that shows girls between the ages of 14 and 17, according to the complaint.

He said that he set up internet accounts to access pornography, but then deleted them after he “calmed down” and described his use of Kik as “sort of a high, so to speak,” the complaint states.

Miley told the detective, “I’ve done some stupid things and mistakes I then regret, so I’ve tried my hardest to stay away from that stuff. It’s almost like being addicted to drugs in that way,” according to the complaint.

Miley said he traded child pornography and said he uploaded videos of girls he believed to be younger teenagers so he would be accepted into the chat groups he was trying to access, the complaint states.

He said he believed the last time he accessed Kik was March 2022 and that he only used his cell phone. Miley said he then transitioned to finding pornography on Reddit and Telegram, although Telegram had “the most underage stuff” and he “tried to stay off there,” the complaint states.

Of the girls shown in the videos reported by Kik to authorities, Miley said the one believed to be 10 to 13-years-old was “the bare minimum for the age” that interested him. He said the 6 to 9-year-old girl was not the type of child he was interested in but that he probably traded it with someone to “get what he wanted,” according to the complaint.

During Friday’s hearing, Lindsay requested bail be set at $30,000 for Miley, who appeared via video from the county jail, and that he be prohibited from possessing any electronic device capable of accessing the internet, noting that Miley has extensive knowledge of setting up Kik accounts and covering his tracks.

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge set bail at $20,000 and in addition to ordering Miley not to possess devices capable of accessing the internet, ordered him not to have contract with children younger than 18, including his three children, and not to have contact with schools.

Miley is scheduled to appear before Ozaukee County Cirucit Judge Steve Cain for a preliminary hearing on May 17.

Possession of child pornography is punishable by at least three years in prison and not more than 15 years, as well as 10 years of extended supervision.

This story was updated at 2:16 p.m. Friday, March 24.