COLUMBUS – A 39-year-old Grandview Heights attorney is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday for a detention hearing after being arrested Thursday on federal child pornography charges.
Stephen Chinn, who is a public defender in Franklin County, reportedly a public defender, has been charged with transporting, receiving, and possessing child pornography, according to a release from the office of U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker.
According to the three-count federal indictment returned Wednesday, Chinn uploaded child pornography to the internet that depicted prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and turned himself in at U.S. District Court Thursday morning and made an initial appearance in federal court, when the charges were unsealed, Parker said at that time.
Chinn allegedly downloaded and saved other child sexual abuse material between Aug. 11 and 13 and authorities executed a search warrant at Chinn’s residence on Aug. 16.
It is alleged that Chinn possessed a desktop computer containing more than 4,000 child sexual abuse images, Parker said.
Chinn was initially arrested on Aug. 16 and charged locally with pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and pandering obscenity and released on bond in that matter. The federal indictment supersedes local charges, Parker said.
The case is being investigated by the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Transporting and receiving child pornography are federal crimes punishable by a mandatory prison term of five to 20 years in prison.