A 39-year-old Cincinnati man has pleaded guilty in federal court to sexually exploiting a 7-year-old child and coercing a teenage girl in Oregon into an online relationship built on a fake identity. Kyle Rist entered his plea before a federal judge in Cincinnati, admitting to charges that stemmed from a nearly three-year investigation spanning two states.
Rist pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Douglas R. Cole, according to a U.S. Department of Justice announcement. As WLWT first reported, Rist admitted to multiple sexual charges against children, though no sentencing date has yet been announced.
How the Case Began in Oregon
The federal investigation traces back to September 2023, when the grandparents of a teenage girl in Oregon alerted local law enforcement that their granddaughter was exchanging sexually explicit videos with Rist over Facebook and Snapchat, per the Justice Department. Court filings cited by the agency say Rist used the online alias “Jeremy Hadley” to communicate with the teenager, referring to himself as “daddy” while persuading her they were in a romantic relationship. WLWT similarly reported, citing court documents, that Rist used a fake identity to convince the Oregon teen they were in a relationship, and that investigators said he received sexually explicit videos of her through the two platforms.
A Second Victim in Ohio
Between August and November 2024, Rist sexually exploited a 7-year-old child by creating images and videos of the victim engaging in and assisting another person in sexually explicit conduct, according to the Justice Department. That conduct, which unfolded closer to home in Ohio, formed the second core thread of the federal case against him.
From a 16-Count Indictment to a Guilty Plea
When a federal grand jury originally indicted Rist on April 30, 2025, he faced 16 counts covering sexual exploitation of minors, coercion and enticement, and receiving and possessing child pornography, according to the FDIC Office of Inspector General. Hoodline covered that initial indictment last year, when Rist was charged alongside 46-year-old Jonathan Travis Mackey, a former FDIC employee from Loveland, Ohio, in a separate but concurrent federal child exploitation case out of Cincinnati. Rist has now pleaded guilty to a narrowed set of charges tied to the two victims.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Danielle E. Margeaux and Kyle J. Healey are prosecuting the case, as announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II and FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie. Under the terms of his guilty plea, Rist faces a prison sentence ranging from 15 to 30 years, the Justice Department said.
Part of a Nationwide Child Safety Effort
The prosecution was carried out under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 to combine federal, state, and local resources against technology-facilitated child sexual abuse. The program is what allowed a tip from grandparents in Oregon to connect with FBI agents working the case in Cincinnati. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, which is prosecuting Rist, oversees federal cases across 48 counties and more than five million residents in the region.
No sentencing date has been set. It remains unclear exactly when Rist will return to court or where within the 15-to-30-year range Judge Cole will ultimately sentence him.
