’16 and Pregnant’ Alum Lori Wickelhaus Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

A former star of MTV‘s 16 and Pregnant has found herself in the midst of a troubling legal matter. According to Ashley’s Reality Roundup, Lori Wickelhaus, who appeared on Season 2 of 16 and Pregnant alongside Kailyn Lowry, Chelsea Houska, and Leah Messer, was recently arrested and charged with 20 counts of possessing or viewing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Wickelhaus was reportedly arrested on Aug. 24 in Campbell County, Kentucky.

Starcasm obtained the police report from Wickelhaus’ arrest. The report, which was mostly redacted, revealed that the county’s police department received a Cybertip from the Kentucky State Police Internet Crimes Against Task Force that was initially submitted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip came in after an unknown individual uploaded photos to a Dropbox account that showed illicit images featuring children. Authorities then began a search in March of Wickelhaus’ computers and phone. She was indicted on Aug. 13 and arrested over a week later. The Sun, which was the first to report the news of her arrest, reported that the images in question were found on an iPhone and a white chrome laptop PC. Wickelhaus, 28, was later released on a $10,000 bond. Her arraignment will take place in a Kentucky courthouse on Sept. 8.

Wickelhaus originally appeared on 16 and Pregnant in a Season 2 episode that aired in 2010. The former reality star and her then-boyfriend Cory Haskett put their baby boy up for adoption (Ashley’s Reality Roundup reached out to Haskett about this news, but he had “no comment” on the news of Wickelhaus’ arrest.) In 2012, she gave an interview about what life was like following her time on the MTV series. “Before I got here I was on a downward spiral. I had no dreams, I didn’t have any goals, I didn’t care what happened day to day,” she said about her stay at Q&A Associates, a transitional program for young adults in West Virginia. “I’d wake up and go right back to bed. There was nothing to get up and work for. Now I have everything to work for. After my pregnancy, I hit a rough spot. I couldn’t really get over that I had done an open adoption with my son. I wasn’t working. I quit going to school. I knew I needed a change.”

After her time in the program, she met a man named Joey. The two, who became engaged, welcomed a daughter, Rylynn, and a son, Logan, before ultimately breaking up. It is currently unclear whether her two children are with her. This case isn’t the first time that Wickelhaus has gotten into legal trouble. In 2018, she was arrested twice in one week in January. Her first arrest came with a charge of “Theft by Deception” after she allegedly wrote bad checks and failed to appear in court. She was later arrested that same week again after she failed to appear in court once again.