COLUMBUS, Ohio — U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II announced Tuesday that a Columbus man received a 15-year prison sentence for cybercrime charges that include distributing real and AI-generated sexually explicit images and threatening several people.
James Strahler, 37, pleaded guilty in April to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publishing digital forgeries.
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Gerace’s office confirmed that Strahler became the first person nationwide convicted of violating the Take It Down Act, which President signed into law in May 2025. The law prohibits people from publishing nonconsensual intimate images online, whether authentic or computer-generated, of others.
Hilliard Police Department first charged Strahler locally in 2025 after a victim reported threatening and harassing messages that she and her mother received. The messages included nude photos of the victim, including explicit AI-generated images.
Strahler admitted responsibility for those messages, and police charged and released him several days later. Three months later, however, the same victim contacted Hilliard police again after receiving similar messages from an unknown number.
Court records show that investigators obtained a search warrant for Strahler’s phone, which revealed calls, messages and images he used to harass the victim and others. This evidence led to federal charges, and authorities arrested Strahler in June 2025.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that Strahler sent harassing messages to at least six women between December 2024 and June 2025. The messages included nude images of the victims, both real and AI-generated. In at least one case, Strahler distributed those videos to the victim’s coworkers or family members.
Officials said Strahler also left explicit messages for the victims and threatened rape.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Strahler also posted AI-generated obscenities of children online that he created himself. He created more than 700 images depicting both real victims, including boys from his community, and animated figures, then posted them to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse. Investigators also discovered 2,400 explicit images and videos on his phone, including child sexual abuse material.
“I’m proud of my Office’s prosecution of this case—the first in the Nation under the Take It Down Act,” Gerace said in a statement. “Thanks to this new law, we can now show offenders like Strahler that they will not get away with producing and posting disturbing AI-generated content. Today’s sentence should serve as a warning that significant prison time will result from this repulsive conduct.”
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