By Shavonne Walker
shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — A Granite Quarry man accepted a guilty plea this week, nearly five years after local investigators with the Granite Quarry-Faith Joint Police Authority, Landis and Rockwell police departments arrested him after he was accused of posting nude photos of young girls on social media.

Peter Thomas Kiever, now 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony indecent liberties with a child, one count of felony first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, nine counts of felony second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and six counts of felony disseminate obscene material to a minor.

He was sentenced to 58 months to 130 months in prison, said Rowan County District Attorney Brandy Cook.

Then 19-year-old Kiever was first charged in 2014 after Granite Quarry police initially began investigating on Oct. 7, 2013. That’s when they received a harassment complaint against Kiever through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Kik, and other social media sites.

Granite Quarry Investigator Todd Taylor said at the time they linked Peter Kiever to the social media accounts used to post the illicit photos through a computer owned by his father, Brian Kiever, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for sheriff. Police received information that Peter Kiever was soliciting nude pictures from juveniles and had them stored on a thumb drive.

Peter Kiever was asking individuals to submit pictures so he could then distribute them to others. Those pictures wound up on Instagram.

Taylor said, at the time, Peter Kiever knew some of those whose pictures were posted to the photo-sharing site. Peter Kiever was arrested in March 2014; afterwards, additional victims were identified and/or came forward, which led to more charges.

An additional juvenile victim was interviewed with the assistance of SBI investigators and provided information indicating that Kiever engaged in “an immoral and improper” sex act on the 13-year-old juvenile. The juvenile also revealed that Kiever had engaged in sexual intercourse with the 13-year-old juvenile, along with soliciting nude pictures.

Landis police received complaints from residents about three Instagram accounts with pictures of nude or semi-nude young girls believed to be from East Rowan High, West Rowan High, Kannapolis Middle and South Rowan High schools, based on captions.

The Instagram accounts called “rowancountyhoes,” “rowan_county_hoes” and “rowancountywhores,” showed girls in bra and underwear while others were unclothed — some from the neck down and some showing the victim’s face.

The Instagram accounts were tied to Peter Kiever, a minor and an unknown person. The minor was also charged.