KY juvenile justice guard faces felony charge over texts, pics sent to teen girl
A Kentucky juvenile justice guard is accused of texting sexually lewd messages and pictures of his genitals in May to an underaged teen girl who had been held at the Boyd County detention center where he worked and who was returned to that facility the next day.
Travis Edward Porter, 42, was a correctional officer at the Boyd Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Ashland, operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.
Porter communicated with the girl via TikTok and text on May 29 during a brief period when she was out of custody, according to an internal investigation by the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. The Herald-Leader obtained the cabinet’s investigative file under Kentucky’s Open Records Act.
State officials told the Herald-Leader on Thursday that Porter wasn’t supposed to be working at the juvenile detention center anymore. He has a recent history of domestic violence cases that include protective orders against him and charges of assault, terroristic threatening and strangulation, according to court records.
The girl said that after Porter followed her on TikTok, she explained she was 14 years old, investigators wrote. He responded by providing his phone number, she said.
“Now you trying to see your favorite staff (penis) lol,” Porter wrote to the girl as he texted photos of his genitals, followed by: “Can you work with that.”
Porter later told Kentucky State Police that he mistakenly believed the girl was 18 years old, not a minor, although he realized in hindsight that he still should not have communicated with her, according to internal investigators.
“Even 19 or 20 isn’t much better,” Porter said.
“When told that if you have to ask if someone is 18, you probably shouldn’t be talking to them, Porter replied, ‘I agree there,’” investigators wrote.
At one point in his May 29 conversation with the girl, Porter asked her to delete everything, investigators wrote. When he fully realized what he had done, Porter told police that he thought, “Holy crap, I’m f--ked,” investigators wrote.
Criminal charges pending
Porter awaits a pretrial hearing Oct. 24 in Boyd Circuit Court on one Class B felony count of using electronic devices to induce a minor to engage in sexual activities, according to court records.
Porter remained jailed this week in the Boyd County Detention Center in lieu of $200,000 full-cash bond, in part because his Aug. 19 felony indictment violated the terms of his probation for a domestic violence conviction the previous month on fourth-degree assault and strangulation charges.
Court records in Greenup and Boyd counties indicate Porter has a history of domestic violence cases, including two protective orders filed against him by two different women in recent years.
Porter was sentenced Feb. 5 to six months of diversion to resolve fourth-degree assault and terroristic threatening charges from October 2024, when a woman told the Boyd County Sheriff’s Department that he repeatedly punched her and threatened to slit her throat with a knife, according to court records.
He was sentenced July 31 to three years of probation to resolve a different arrest, in April, when he was charged with fourth-degree assault and strangulation. A woman in that case told the Raceland Police Department that Porter texted her threatening messages and then came into her home while drunk and shoved his forearm into her throat to choke her, according to court records.
State officials admit error
Asked why Porter was working in a juvenile detention facility despite his various legal issues, state officials acknowledged to the Herald-Leader that he should not have been.
“This should not have happened and is unacceptable,” said Justice and Public Safety Secretary Keith Jackson.
“I was advised in 2024 this person was being terminated, but that decision was reversed without my knowledge or consent,” Jackson said.
“We’re still reviewing the circumstances of this person’s hiring and will get to the bottom of it,” the secretary said. “I will be taking steps to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
A public defender assigned to represent Porter on the felony sex charge did not return calls this week seeking comment. His attorney in the domestic violence cases declined to comment.
A string of similar problems
Porter is only the latest in a series of adults who worked inside Kentucky’s juvenile detention facilities to be charged with sex offenses involving youths held at the facilities.
Last month, an Adair County jury convicted teacher Elena Bardin on felony sex charges related to her behind-bars relationship with one of her students at the Adair Youth Development Center in Columbia. And a Nov. 17 trial is set in Campbell County for Neil Moorman, a guard charged with first-degree sexual abuse for his allegedly inappropriate physical contact with girls at the Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating conditions inside Kentucky’s juvenile detention facilities to determine if youths’ civil rights are being violated, following years of critical news stories, lawsuits and a state audit.
Porter’s latest trouble started May 30, when the girl whom he allegedly texted returned to the Boyd Regional Juvenile Detention Center to be reincarcerated.
During the intake process, the girl said she was scared because of one of the officers at the facility, whom she identified as Porter, had inappropriately communicated with her while she was out in the community — and she handed over her phone to a lieutenant for officials to review, investigators wrote.
Based on the contents of the phone, Kentucky State Police were called to begin a criminal investigation.
