Stephen P. Sullivan, 87, faces 20 charges in Dayton Municipal Court: 10 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor or impaired person and 10 counts of illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, according to WHIO-TV 7 and WHIO Radio.
The case traces back to Minnesota, where the Koochiching County Sheriff's Office contacted the Dayton Police Department in October about Sullivan, described in court documents as a former camp employee, as reported by WHIO-TV 7 and WHIO Radio. The tip involved a hard drive containing suspected edited photographs of nude children, along with stories of a sexual nature involving children, as noted by the station.
How the investigation developed
Dayton detectives spoke with Sullivan last week, and during that interview he provided his laptop to investigators, per the same account. An affidavit stated that the laptop had, in the words used by police, obvious child sexual abuse material visible, according to WHIO.
Sullivan then gave permission for the computer to be downloaded, and that download turned up additional child sexual abuse material, the station reports.
Arrest warrant status
Under Ohio law, the charges Sullivan faces carry serious potential consequences. Ohio Revised Code section 2907.323 classifies a violation of division (A)(1) or (2) as a felony of the second degree when the offense involves a minor, while section 2907.321 similarly treats violations under several of its divisions as second-degree felonies when a minor is involved, with reduced third-degree felony classifications when the material involves an impaired person.
National context on investigations
For a national benchmark, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention says Internet Crimes Against Children task forces conducted nearly 347,000 investigations in 2025, leading to more than 17,000 arrests. That national total does not give the number handled by Ohio’s task force in its latest annual report, nor does it indicate whether an ICAC task force handled Sullivan’s case; see the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
