Crime & Safety

Lakewood Man Gets Four Years in Prison For Child Pornography Charges

Leonard Miller, 43, of 1626 Winton Avenue, was sentenced to four years for 34 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor. He's the last of four Lakewood men sentenced as part of a sting involving 30 people in Cuyahoga County.

The last of four Lakewood men arrested in a was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

Leonard Miller, 43, of 1626 Winton Avenue, was sentenced to four years for each of the 34 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor; and one year for a charge of possession of criminal tools. However, those charges will run concurrent.

In addition, upon his release from the Loran Correctional Institute, Miller will be required to register as a Tier 2 sex offender. 

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Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Brian Corrigan handed down the sentence.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office, along with 15 law enforcement partners of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, took part in Operation Lake Effect — a six-month investigation into child pornography that resulted in the arrests of 30 Northeast Ohio residents in December.

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Among them were Lakewood residents, Nicholas Dore, 59; Gareth Schakel, 20; and Robert Watson, 26, who were all sentenced to prison.

Schakel, of 14567 Madison Avenue, was sentenced in April to five years of probation; Dore, of 13705 Lakewood Heights Blvd., was sentenced in July to three years in prison; and Watson was sentenced in May to four months in the Cuyahoga County jail, but released with time served.

Jesse Canonico, assistant prosecuting attorney, said Miller had images and videos on his computer of children — as young as five years old — being raped.

Miller and the others were caught during “Operation Lake Effect,” when investigators from the prosecutor’s office found child pornography on a shared website. The files, Canonico said, contain “digital DNA,” so that investigators can identify what they contain — and when people view them. 

From May 2010 through December 2010, 46 law enforcement officers from 17 executed 54 search warrants on homes in 22 communities throughout Cuyahoga County, according to the statement.

Officers seized 1,821 items such as computers, CDs, cell phones, flash drives, digital cameras, and webcams. Thirty-four additional cases have been referred to 23 law enforcement agencies outside of Cuyahoga County, including one in the state of Indiana.

“I think anytime you deal with kids, the elderly and the disabled — these are the most vulnerable people,” Canonico said. “It’s certainly worse when the victim is a child.”

“Anybody who has a sexual interest in children needs to be prosecuted.”


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