Former LaRue County High School principal ordered to pay child porn victims $3.6 million

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The former Kentucky principal who posted nude photos of his students online has been ordered to pay them $3.6 million.

Stephen Kyle Goodlett was the principal of LaRue County High School from 2013-16. In 2018, he was convicted of federal child pornography charges for confiscating student's cellphones, stealing nude photos and uploading them to the internet.

Six of those students sued Goodlett and a final judgement was made last week. While their names are listed in court documents, the victims were all minors at the time of the crimes, so WDRB News will not be identifying them.

A federal judge has now ruled in their favor, saying they “have suffered mental anguish, embarrassment and damage to their reputations.”

In court documents, Magistrate Judge Regina S. Edwards wrote while Goodlett was “authorized to confiscate the cell phones during school hours, he did not have sufficient justification” to search the phones, which violated the students’ “constitutionally guaranteed rights.”

Edwards wrote that “many of the plaintiffs endured negative or lewd comments from family, friends, and acquaintances” after the photos were posted online.

In the court documents, the judge noted that one victim “stated that when she meets new people or attends a job interview, she is always nervous that they know about her nude photographs.” The judge wrote that another victim said she “has an irrational fear of being kidnapped because her photos were put on a Russian website.”

The judge awarded the plaintiffs a $3.6 million judgement to be split equally, $600,000 each.

Goodlett is currently serving a nine-year sentence at a federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky. He will also be supervised for 10 years after his release.

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