Lakewood Ohio – US: A Lakewood man pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of the distribution of child pornography. A Lakewood man pleaded guilty to posing as a teenager online to solicit sexually explicit photos and videos from a child, the Department of Justice announced.

A Lakewood man pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography

Brian Grinnell, 36, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography in the District of Connecticut. He will be sentenced July 19. He faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison, and a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Brian Grinnell, 36, was posing as a 15-year-old girl on the Omegle – a chat website and app that allows users to interact with strangers – when he met another little girl.

Starting in March 2020, Grinnell began posing as a 15-year-old girl online. During that time, he met a girl who was under the age of 12 on an online chat website.

Court Documents

After the two met online, Grinnell began communicating with the girl through Snapchat. He convinced the girl to take sexually explicit photos and videos of herself and send them to him.

Grinnell then contacted a friend of the 12-year-old on TikTok told her that unless her friend got in touch with him, he’d post a video of the 12-year-old naked on TikTok.

Grinnell did post sexually explicit videos of the little girl on TikTok

The girl eventually felt uncomfortable talking to Grinnell and unfriended and blocked him online.

Grinnell then reached out to a friend of the girl’s using TikTok. He told the friend that unless the girl got in touch with him, he would post a naked video of the girl on TikTok.

A friend of the girl asked Grinnell to not post any more videos, he threatened her too

The girls then threatened to go to the police and Grinnell said “How are they gonna find me?” He then posted another video of the girl on TikTok.

I want a video of you begging me to not put them up. And you have to be topless in the video. If you don’t want any more of your friend stuff going out.

Grinnell

The FBI opened a multi-state investigation into the incidents on TikTok. On September 23, 2020, police identified Grinnell and arrested him. He has been in custody since that time.

Grinnell will be sentenced on July 19. He faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.