Ex-Port Royal preschool worker also charged with federal child sex crime in Iowa
A former employee at a Port Royal preschool who was arrested on campus last week and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor now faces a similar federal charge in Iowa, according to court records.
Brandon Scott Baker, 38, of St. Helena Island, was charged with sexual exploitation of children in federal court for the Northern District of Iowa, according to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 30.
Baker was arrested at the Sea Island Sprouts preschool during morning dropoff on Jan. 27 and charged by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Those state charges remained pending as of Thursday morning, according to Beaufort County court records.
A special agent with Homeland Security Investigations signed an affidavit about the federal case in Iowa, which involves accusations dating back to 2013 and evidence seized during searches of Baker’s former home and workplace in Colorado nearly two years ago.
Administrators at Sea Island Sprouts said in an email to an Island Packet reporter shortly after Baker’s arrest that he “is no longer working at the school.” The preschool claimed to have completed all background checks and hiring procedures required under state law. Although they involve similar accusations, Baker’s state charges and federal case are separate from one another and will be prosecuted in their respective courts.
Officers with HSI helped carry out Baker’s arrest at the preschool, according to Robert Kittle, a spokesperson for the S.C. attorney general’s office. It was not immediately clear if the federal agency was involved as part of its regular work in investigating child exploitation or in anticipation of Baker’s federal charge.
Arrest warrants for Baker’s South Carolina charges allege he committed the second-degree offense — which typically refers to uploading or receiving child sexual abuse material — around Nov. 15 in his St. Helena home, using a “file-sharing network.” Offense dates for the third-degree charges are listed as Jan. 27, the same day as his arrest.
Accusations in Iowa date back to 2013
In April 2024, the Iowa complaint says, police in Telluride, Colorado, where Baker previously lived and worked at a local preschool, received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. An image uploaded to an Adobe online account linked to Baker had been flagged for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to the federal complaint.
Telluride police executed search warrants on Baker’s home and the preschool where he worked, Rascals Rainbow Rockies. Among the items seized by law enforcement was a memory card containing “multiple images of child pornography,” the complaint says.
Investigators determined several of the photos were taken by a Canon digital camera in Iowa within a weeklong span in November 2013. The photos captured a “nude prepubescent boy handcuffed laying on a bed,” the complaint says, with some of the images depicting Baker as well.
Baker was 26 at the time the photos were taken.
Daniel M. Kraft, an HSI special agent, stated in an affidavit in the Iowa case that he identified and interviewed the victim in the photos, who “confirmed he had a sexual relationship” with Baker when the victim was a minor. The victim said the two “regularly engaged in sex” at Baker’s former apartment in Grundy Center, Iowa, according to the affidavit.
Baker to be extradited to Iowa
Attorney Charles William Cochran, who works for Charleston’s federal public defender office, said Baker made a 10-minute initial appearance federal court in Charleston on Tuesday to hear the charge filed against him in the Iowa case.
“He’s basically going to be extradited over to Iowa to face those charges,” Cochran said, adding he did not know if Baker had been extradited from South Carolina as of Thursday morning.
Baker’s application for his Colorado apartment said he lived in his apartment in Grundy Center, Iowa, from early 2012 through September 2016, according to the affidavit. A public records search indicates he had a Beaufort County address beginning in June 2024.
It was unclear how Baker’s federal charge would affect his South Carolina case or the Colorado investigation, which authorities in Telluride said was ongoing as of last week.
Baker posted cash bonds totaling $100,000 and was released from the Beaufort County jail on Jan. 29, the day before he was taken into custody again in connection with the Iowa case, according to his arrest warrant from Iowa federal court.
‘The system has failed our children’
Baker’s Jan. 27 arrest shocked parents at Sea Island Sprouts, which serves children ages 1 through 4. Some expressed concern the school wasn’t aware of Colorado police’s 2024 investigation into Baker, news of which was available online. Others who continue to support the school say Baker’s hiring reflected a “judicial problem,” not one with the preschool’s practices. “I personally think the system has failed our children,” Morgan Sutcliff Herndon said as she picked up her daughter from the school Tuesday afternoon.
Located two blocks away from Port Royal’s downtown drag of Paris Avenue, the preschool follows the “Reggio Emilia” educational philosophy, which emphasizes experiential learning and creativity.
“There’s not enough daycares in this town and this school is amazing,” Herndon told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 1:06 PM.
