Grove City Cell Phone Worker Admits to Child Porn Charges, Spied on 59 Customers

A 41-year-old Grove City man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material, admitting he paid with virtual currency to obtain the illegal images while also secretly copying explicit photos and videos off the phones of dozens of unsuspecting cell phone store customers. Neil R. Brown worked at multiple Cellular Sales stores throughout Columbus, where investigators say he used his access to customers' devices to search for and steal sexual content without their knowledge.

U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. presided over the guilty plea, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Czerniejewski leading the prosecution for the Southern District of Ohio, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio. As reported by WSYX, Brown possessed more than 75 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse material of prepubescent minors between the ages of 7 and 9, and court documents show he searched for sexual or illicit content on female customers' devices while working the sales floor.

Fifty-Nine Customers' Private Images Copied to His Phone

Federal agents recovered exactly 59 explicit images and videos of Cellular Sales customers that Brown secretly searched, extracted, and stored on his personal device, per the Justice Department's announcement. WSYX's earlier reporting described investigators recovering more than 50 sexual images and videos from Cellular Sales customers, with Brown capturing nude photos and videos on his personal phone. Cellular Sales operates as an authorized independent retailer for Verizon Wireless with hundreds of store locations nationwide, a corporate footprint that put Brown in direct, unsupervised contact with customers' unlocked devices during routine service visits.

The investigation into Brown began after a cyber tip line initiated a probe in January 2025, and he was federally charged with child pornography offenses in December of that year. The case was jointly investigated by the FBI Cincinnati Division alongside Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin and the Franklin County Sheriff's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, illustrating how local and federal agencies pooled digital evidence to build the case.

Charges Brought Under National Child Exploitation Initiative

Prosecutors brought the case under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combine federal, state, and local resources against child sexual exploitation. Under federal law, receiving child sexual abuse material carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School; possession alone can also draw up to 20 years. Brown's charges carry up to 20 years in prison, and he now awaits sentencing before Judge Sargus.

The scale of tips feeding cases like Brown's has grown sharply. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports nationwide in 2025, escalating more than 53,000 urgent cases to law enforcement. Regional task forces have felt that surge directly — Indiana's statewide ICAC task force saw a 38 percent jump in CyberTipline reports last year that led to 499 arrests, a trend Hoodline previously detailed in coverage of Central Ohio's own enforcement capacity.

Part of a Wave of Central Ohio Federal Cases

Brown's plea is the latest in a string of federal child exploitation prosecutions moving through the Southern District of Ohio this year. Earlier this month, Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison sentenced a Thornville man to 40 years in federal prison in Columbus after a conviction for child sexual exploitation and possession of child pornography, a case Hoodline also covered. Both prosecutions trace back to the same modern framework: the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which standardized how federal and local authorities share digital tips and evidence in cases like Brown's.

What remains unclear is whether Cellular Sales or Verizon face any civil liability tied to Brown's access to customer devices, or whether the retailer has since tightened device-access protocols for its employees. It also has not been disclosed how many of the 59 affected customers have been formally notified by federal victim assistance units, or when Judge Sargus will set a sentencing date.