OLATHE, Kan. — It’s been a long wait for a KCK family. Now, the man they say sent sexually explicit Snapchats to their daughter has been charged with electronic solicitation of a child under the age of 14.
FOX4 Reporter Shannon O’Brien broke this story in February when police were first investigating this incident involving Piper Middle School Assistant Principal Eric Kilgore.
“I am glad he is finally getting charged,” the victim’s mother, who asked not to publish her name, said after Kilgore’s first court appearance. “I don’t know why it took as long as it did, but at least it is happening and hopefully he gets what he deserves.”
FOX4 interviewed the seventh-grade victim on Feb. 13, and she described the sexually explicit Snapchat messages she said she received from Kilgore.
“It got like really, really, really in-depth detail of what he said and it was just awful,” the victim said. “When I received the first message, I was like, ‘This is weird and uncomfortable,’ and I just knew it wasn’t right.”
Although the victim said Kilgore told her to erase the messages, she saved them and showed her parents. They contacted the school and police.
“I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but when I read them and when I seen what he was saying, anger, anger,” the victim’s mother said. “But I am proud of my daughter, extremely proud that she came forward and didn’t let someone like that intimidate her.”
Piper School District Superintendent Tim Conrad sent a letter to parents after learning Kilgore had been arrested and charged with this crime. See the full letter below.
Story continues below photo.
The victim’s mother insists no one from the school has contacted them since she reported the incident, and her daughter was never offered counseling or support from the school district.
“It seems like they wanted to just maybe push it under the rug and not think there was a big deal or maybe they didn’t believe. I don’t know,” the mother said. “But all you have to do is look at those text messages and see. We didn’t make that up.”
Conrad has not returned FOX4’s call for comment.
The judge reduced Kilgore’s bond from $100,000 to $50,000 on Friday, after his attorney asked the judge, “If he is such a risk to the community, why was he not charged sooner?”
Kilgore will be back in court June 6.
KCK Police investigated this crime, but because the victim was in Johnson County when she allegedly received the messages, the case is being prosecuted there.
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