Brandon Klayme acquitted after Kik username error led to prison term
Nova Scotia’s appeal court cleared Brandon Klayme after police sought records for the wrong Kik username in a child-luring case.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
Brandon Klayme acquitted is the result of a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling that found a one-character error in a Kik subpoena sent investigators to the wrong person. The court overturned Klayme’s convictions in a child-luring case after he had already served an 18-month prison sentence.
The mistake centered on a Skyrim-themed Kik handle. Police were investigating the user “fus__ro_dah,” with two underscores after “fus,” but a subpoena to Kik requested information for “fus_ro_dah,” with one underscore. Kik returned account information that led to Klayme, according to the court record.
The appeal court said Klayme was “factually innocent of the offences” and “should never have been charged, let alone convicted.” His convictions were set aside, he was acquitted on all counts, and his sentence, including probation, was vacated.
How did a Kik username mistake lead to Brandon Klayme's conviction?
The case began in 2018 after a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl’s mother found an inappropriate image on the child’s phone and contacted police. The Dane County Sheriff’s Department examined the phone and identified 125 Kik messages between the girl and an adult using the name “fus__ro_dah.”
To identify the account holder, investigators contacted Kik. The subpoena, however, omitted one underscore. Kik’s response connected the one-underscore account to an email address belonging to Klayme, according to the Court of Appeal decision.
Google records tied that email address to access from an IP address in Canada. Dane County investigators then referred the matter to Halifax Regional Police. Halifax police took the IP address to Bell Aliant, which associated it with Klayme’s physical address.
Police obtained a search warrant for Klayme’s home and seized phones and laptops from his bedroom. The searches found no evidence tied to the alleged conduct, according to the court record. Investigators did not find intimate images, did not link Klayme to the Wisconsin girl, and could not show that he had used Kik during the period at issue.
Klayme was still charged with three offences: luring a person under 14 by telecommunication, providing sexually explicit material to a child, and possession of child pornography. He was convicted at trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term.
What did the appeal court find?
The username discrepancy surfaced while Klayme’s appeal was being prepared. In material quoted by the court, Klayme said the subpoena’s mistake “changed the course of my life” and had not been raised before the trial judge.
After the issue was identified, prosecutors agreed that the appeal should succeed. The court said a proper investigation would have pointed to a different person, described in the decision as an individual whose first name is Jay and whose IP address appeared to be in California.
The ruling leaves an uncomfortable record for digital investigations: the key data request was wrong, the seized devices did not corroborate the case, and the error remained undiscovered through trial. The Court of Appeal said the information about the usernames was available at the time, but there was no evidence explaining how it went unnoticed.
The decision is available from the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
