James Strahler II, 37, of Columbus, Ohio, pled guilty in Ohio federal court to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries.
His conviction on the publication of digital forgeries charge is part of the Take It Down Act, which prohibits nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions and AI forgeries. It was signed into law by President Donald Trump in May 2025.
"We believe Strahler is the first person in the United States to be convicted under the Take It Down Act," said U.S. attorney Dominick S. Gerace II. "We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent."
From December 2024 until June 2025, Strahler sent harassing messages to at least six adult women, according to federal prosecutors.
"The defendant used telephone calls, voicemails, text messages and web postings to engage in a campaign of harassment against his victims," the DOJ said.
The Ohio man also messaged the mothers of his victims and demanded nude photos of them, threatening to circulate the explicit or obscene images he created of their daughters if they did not comply, according to the Justice Department.
"He often called the victims and left voicemails of him masturbating or threatening rape. He referred to the victims' specific home addresses in his threats," prosecutors said.
Strahler's phone had dozens of platforms with artificial intelligence tools installed, according to the Justice Department.
"Strahler used AI to create pornographic videos depicting at least one adult victim engaged in sex acts with her father," it said. "He then distributed those videos to the victim's co-workers."
He also posted online AI-generated images of boys from his local area, morphing their faces onto the bodies of other adults or children, and created videos that depicted the minors engaging in sex acts.
"Strahler specifically created AI-generated obscenity of the minor boys having sex with their mothers and/or grandmothers," the DOJ said.
More than 700 images of real individuals and images of people Strahler animated were posted by the man to a website featuring child sexual abuse, prosecutors said. On his phone were an additional 2,400 images and videos depicting nudity, morphed child sexual abuse images or violence, the Justice Department said.
Strahler's conduct was reported to the Hilliard Police Department in Ohio in January 2025 by one of Strahler's victims, according to the affidavit filed with the complaint.
The woman had secured a protective order against Strahler, and he was released from jail, according to the affidavit.
In April 2025, the woman contacted the police again because she learned that co-workers had received images of her from an unknown individual, according to the affidavit.
"Some of the images were real images of [the victim's] nude body and some were of [her] face imposed on pornographic images engaged in sex acts," prosecutors said.
The police obtained a search warrant and seized Strahler's phone, which revealed evidence in the way of calls, messages, and media, according to the affidavit.
When the police interviewed Strahler, he admitted he had been responsible for sending the voicemails, text messages and pornographic images. He also acknowledged that in one voicemail, he threatened to rape the woman while he was masturbating.
Based on that conduct, he was charged in Ohio's Franklin Municipal Court, according to the affidavit, which does not state the specific charges.
The local police and sheriff departments continued with their investigation. After receiving phone calls from two additional victims in June 2025, they reached out to federal law enforcement, according to the affidavit. He was arrested on federal charges that same month.
The court granted the federal government's motion to seal portions of the record in support of the criminal complaint as it reveals the identities of numerous victims in the case, "including that of Strahler's own minor child," according to a motion filed June 24, 2025.
A sentencing date was not set according to the court docket.
The U.S. Senate passed the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act, or the Take It Down Act, by unanimous consent in February 2025, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed it 409-2 in April that year.
The bill criminalizes publicizing "non-consensual intimate imagery," which includes images made by AI or "deepfake revenge porn." It requires websites to remove the images within 48 hours of the survivor notifying them. Medical professionals, law enforcement and others working in good faith will be protected for disclosures.
The federal government is represented by Emily Czerniejewski of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Ohio.
Strahler is represented by Todd A. Long of Eastman & Smith Ltd.
The case is USA v James Bradley Strahler, II, case number 2:25-mj-00377, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
--Additional reporting by Courtney Bublé. Editing by Lakshna Mehta.
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