Paul Kadri, the fired former school superintendent of Groton schools is facing federal child pornography possession and transportation charges.

Federal authorities allege the 56-year-old, who served as superintendent in Groton from 2008 to 2013, when he was fired for alleged mistreatment of school employees, was caught at a Florida airport last year carrying a flash drive with images of child pornography.

Charged in a federal indictment, Kadri turned himself in to the U.S. Marshals Service and was held in a Broward County Sheriff’s Office on April 22. He was brought before a judge on April 27 for a pretrial detention and arraignment hearing.

Details of the criminal case against Kadri emerged at that hearing. A transcript of the hearing was obtained by The Day.

On Sept. 20, 2021, Kadri arrived at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport aboard Copa Airlines from Panama City, Panama, transcripts from the April 27 hearing reveal. Kadri had been referred to baggage control, where Customs and Border Protection officers performed a secondary inspection of his luggage, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jodi Anton explained at the hearing.

While waiting in the inspection area, which is monitored by surveillance cameras, a Customs and Border Protection officer watched Kadri reach into his suitcase, pull out a pair of pliers and proceed to start destroying several thumb drives that were in his possession. He was told to drop the pliers and was detained.

When asked what was on the destroyed flash drives, Kadri told officers they contained personal items with his girlfriend that he did not want anyone to see.

Kadri was searched.

“During that pat down, the defendant spontaneously stated that he believed he was being detained because of sexual activities he was having with underage females,” Anton told Judge Alicia O. Valle.

Kadri became upset and asked an officer for his gun so that he could kill himself. He was then placed in restraints. At that time, Anton said Kadri waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with authorities. Kadri allegedly told authorities he has a two-year work visa and moved to Colombia for school and to start a company. He said that in 2018 he went into the adult webcam industry and started a business where he would rent out space for girls to perform sex acts on the internet. Kadri said there were about 17 girls and all at least 18 years of age.

Kadri proceeded to tell authorities he was married to a woman in Colombia and had moved there in 2015 because “a problem he had in Connecticut where he worked as a superintendent of schools but was fired for harassment.”

Kadri had been placed on leave from the Groton school district in 2012 and later fired following an investigation into claims of bullying, harassing, humiliating and intimidating employees, mostly women.

In 2010, the Town of Groton settled a lawsuit against a former assistant superintendent who complained of age and gender discrimination and of becoming ill because of the constant abuse by Kadri. One of Kadri’s former executive assistants filed a complaint against Kadri, alleging abusive behavior. The woman said she carried mace in her office to protect herself from Kadri.

Kadri had come to Groton from Pennsylvania, where he had served as superintendent in the Neshaminy School District in Bucks County, Penn. He previously had served as a superintendent in Moorestown, N.J.

There were never any allegations pertaining to children that surfaced during Kadri’s time in Groton. His employment history after his time in Groton is unknown.

Kadri told law enforcement authorities his wife, who has a daughter with Kadri, had divorced him and alleged abuse and filed lawsuits following his firing in Groton.

At the scene of his detention, Customs and Border Protection seized the electronic equipment Kadri was carrying: a laptop, a desktop, two cellphones, five broken flash drives and miscellaneous documents. On the one undamaged flash drive, law enforcement allegedly found hundreds of folders with female names and inside the folders were nude photos of girls, some of whom appeared to be very young. A forensic analysis turned up 10 images of possible child exploitation material, images of children under the age of 18. The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and three images came back as a match to a child from Uruguay.

Authorities said Kadri, on numerous occasions between 2015 and 2021, had traveled to Colombia, where he would stay between five days and three weeks at a time. In Colombia, Anton told the judge that Kadri had incorporated a business called Empoderada, or empowered, which was the webcam business.

Anton argued at the hearing that Kadri was a flight risk and a danger to society, based in part on his extensive travels to numerous other countries. Kadri allegedly had traveled to countries that included Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Some of those countries are known for sex tourism and child exploitation.

“Except for Poland and Germany, these other places seem to be not your typical tourist spots ...” Judge Valle said at the hearing. “We’ll, I’m just curious, does he speak Spanish? What’s his attraction to these Central and South American Countries.”

Kadri’s defense attorney at the hearing, Robert Malove, said Kadri was involved with a company called Rose Brides for people who want to do international dating, which is what Kadri was doing. Malove said Kadri was in Panama because he could not bring a dog to the U.S. from Colombia because of COVID restrictions.

“He had a good friend that lived in Germany, he had access to a timeshare in Mexico, was there for a short time. He went to Cuba to do some salsa dancing,” Malove said.

Malove questioned the state’s case against Kadri.

“Do you know whether or not Mr. Kadri came into possession of these images as part of an investigation to protect students when he was a superintendent of schools?” Malove asked.

He later argued against pretrial detention for Kadri, saying Kadri has “dedicated himself to education and protection of the students that were in his school districts where there have been no allegation of any improper conduct, any danger that he caused ...”

The charges Kadri faces each carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison, including a five-year minimum term for transportation of child pornography.

At the time of the hearing, the investigation was ongoing. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and defense attorney contacted for this report offered no further details. The case remains pending and a trial date has not yet been scheduled. Kadri, whose last known address in the U.S. was in Bonita Springs, Florida, has entered a not-guilty plea.

g.smith@theday.com