Hercules man accused of sharing hundreds of child porn files, including video of boy ‘locked in a cage,’ feds say

Donald S. Kyle, of Hercules, was charged with possessing child pornography, a federal offense.

OAKLAND — A Hercules man was arrested and charged with possessing child porn in a case where federal authorities allege he shared hundreds of files online, including with an undercover agent, court records show.

Donald S. Kyle was charged July 2 with child porn possession — a federal offense that carries a maximum 10-year sentence — but the case remained under seal until his arrest in late July. Kyle was released at his first court appearance July 30, court records show.

According to the criminal complaint, San Francisco police arrested Kyle on suspicion of having child pornography on his Tumblr account in 2018, and gave his laptop to the Silicon Valley Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory for what turned out to be a two-year review. In January 2020, the FBI began investigating Kyle after identifying him as a user on the chat application Telegram who was sharing child porn.

Among the hundreds of images and videos attributed to Kyle’s online activity was a particularly shocking 8-minute video showing a boy younger than 10 “naked and locked in a cage,” and then being molested by a man, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint describes several other videos where young boys were molested on camera.

When federal authorities interviewed Kyle, he said he had an interest in “naturist” and nudist photography, the complaint says.

Though Kyle was released from jail July 30 — after posting $5,000 of a $50,000 bond — it took a week before authorities added what is normally a standard condition for release, that Kyle have no unsupervised contact with kids, court records show.

Kyle’s next court appearance, a status conference, has been set for Sept. 8. No trial date has yet been set.