A trans-identified male was arrested on December 15, 2021 for the distribution of child sexual abuse materials. Kalen Brennan Woodard, who goes by Kaelyn Nichole Woodard on social media, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been charged with three counts of distribution of pornography involving juveniles.
Reporting on the arrest, most news articles referred to Woodard as a man and made no mention of his self-declared gender identity. However, Woodard’s personal Facebook profile contains several references to him identifying as transgender.
A blog post by Baton Rogue-based journalist Kiran Chawla states that officials were able to match Woodard’s email address and online username during a conversation with an undercover agent. During the interaction, Woodard sent a video and picture containing child sexual abuse material to the agent. According to Chawla, after his arrest Woodard admitted that he enjoyed incest porn and claimed to be sexually aroused by children.
Woodard’s arrest was the result of a joint investigation conducted by the FBI and Louisiana State Police which began in September. According to Chawla, Woodard said he was transgender in a chat with the undercover agent on September 23 2021, at which time he also told the agent he had sexually abused his young nephew and niece in the past.
According to arrest documents obtained by local news outlet WBRZ, Woodard also told the undercover agent that he had watched pornography involving children of all ages, “including babies.”
