Ex-Port Royal preschool worker’s child porn cases span 3 states. What we know
On Jan. 30, three days after a Beaufort County preschool worker was arrested on campus on accusations of owning child sexual abuse material (CSAM), he was charged with a similar crime in Iowa federal court.
The cases involving 38-year-old St. Helena Island resident Brandon Baker span three states and multiple jurisdictional levels. Baker has been employed with at least two preschools, one in a secluded Colorado town and the other — Sea Island Sprouts — near downtown Port Royal.
Police had been investigating Baker since at least April 2024, raising questions about why it took so long to charge him — and how he managed to secure another job working with children.
In an emailed statement to the Island Packet Jan. 28, the day after Baker’s arrest on campus, Sea Island Sprouts said he “is no longer working at the school.”
“The matter does not involve the school,” the email read. “We cooperated fully with authorities and notified appropriate licensing agencies. At the time of hiring, all required background checks and standard hiring procedures were completed in accordance with state licensing requirements.”
The school has declined to offer additional information since then; a phone call to Sea Island Sprouts was not immediately returned on Monday.
Captain Norman McCown of the Port Royal Police Department said Friday that his agency is not currently investigating Baker. Port Royal police are not aware of any evidence of children being harmed or abused at the preschool where Baker worked, McCown said.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request filed Feb. 4, the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet requested documents from the South Carolina Department of Social Services showing that Sea Island Sprouts completed the required background checks for Baker, and the results of the background checks.
The DSS on Saturday denied the request, saying criminal history record information that includes background checks is confidential and not subject to disclosure under FOIA.
As of Friday, Baker was in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, said Tony Morfitt, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Iowa, which is prosecuting the federal case.
On Feb. 3 in South Carolina federal court, Baker waived his right to a preliminary and detention hearing to determine if he should be detained throughout legal proceedings, Morfitt said; he’ll have the option of having that hearing again once he gets to Iowa.
The cases
According to a complaint filed Jan. 30 in federal court, law enforcement in Telluride, Colorado, received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in April 2024 indicating Baker, who was living in Colorado at the time, was in possession of CSAM, more commonly known as child pornography.
The federal complaint details allegations against Baker dating back to 2013. According to the complaint, law enforcement in Colorado found multiple images of child pornography on the SDHC card from the search of Baker’s home and workplace. Investigators determined that some of the photos were taken between Nov. 15 and 22 of 2013.
Daniel Kraft, a special agent with the investigations division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in an affidavit that he interviewed the victim, who confirmed at least some of the images were taken in Baker’s Iowa bedroom.
The victim told Kraft he and Baker had a “sexual relationship” when the victim was a minor, court records show.
Police detained and questioned Baker in 2024, but he was not charged with a crime, the town of Telluride said at the time.
Baker was charged Jan. 30 with sexual exploitation of a child. The federal offense involves a defendant enticing or coercing a minor to perform sex acts for the purpose of producing CSAM, with the intention of sharing the material digitally or through interstate commerce.
Josh Comte, chief marshal at the Telluride Marshal’s Department, told The Telluride Times on April 23, 2024, that serving a search warrant and collecting evidence is often one of the earlier steps in the investigation, with the physical arrest being the last. These types of investigations, Comte told the newspaper, could take months.
It’s been almost two years since Baker’s Colorado home was searched, and public records show Baker had a Beaufort County address beginning in June 2024.
Telluride law enforcement officials told the Island Packet in late January that the investigation was still ongoing; attempts to reach Colorado officials the week of Feb. 2 were not returned.
Baker also faces charges in South Carolina state court.
In South Carolina, he was charged Jan. 28 with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor: two counts in the third degree and one in the second degree. The state charges involve the alleged possession, uploading or exchanging of CSAM.
Arrest warrants for Baker’s South Carolina charges allege he committed the second-degree offense — which typically refers to uploading or receiving CSAM — around Nov. 15 in his St. Helena home, using a “file-sharing network” while actively under investigation by Telluride officials.
Robert Kittle, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Attorney General’s office, said the state’s case is ongoing.
At a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 29, Sea Island Sprouts parents interviewed by the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette said they were told the school had conducted necessary criminal background checks mandated for childcare facilities in South Carolina. Some parents said the system, not the school, was to blame for letting Baker slip through the cracks.
Why now?
The federal charges were filed Jan. 30, three days after Baker’s arrest at Sea Island Sprouts. Morfitt from the Northern District of Iowa declined to comment on the timing of the charges, saying only that Baker appeared in federal court in South Carolina Feb. 3.
Morfitt said he wouldn’t comment on when the Northern District of Iowa got involved with the case. In general, the U.S. attorney’s level of involvement varies from case to case, he said; they work with investigating agencies to find probable cause.
“We definitely work and make sure the complaint and everything is squared away,” he said.
Emails to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more details on the investigation were not returned Friday.
Island Packet reporter Karl Puckett contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 12:49 PM.
