COLUMBUS, Ohio – A former Columbus police officer is facing as many as 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a child pornography charge.
A court document says investigators said they uncovered thousands of images and hundreds of videos on two external hard drives inside the Sunbury home of Stewart Miller and additional images on several CD’s in a storage facility he rented. Court records say Miller, 48, acknowledged an interest in child pornography in a letter obtained by investigators.
Miller pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Columbus to one count of receipt of visual depictions of child pornography.
His attorney says the guilty plea was Miller’s first step in taking responsibility for his addiction.
Miller is on home detention and is being monitored electronically until sentencing and is also prohibited him from having access to the internet. No sentencing date has been set, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart.
During the plea hearing, FBI agents said authorities acting on a tip began investigating Miller in October, and executed search warrants at the home where he lived at the time and a storage facility he rented, recovering various computers and digital media, Stewart’s office said.
Two external drives found in a crawl space above the bathroom contained thousands of images and more and videos dating back to 2002 and involving children who ranged in age from toddler to teenager, a spokesman for Stewart’s office said. More images and videos were found on a laptop seized from the basement of the home.