Updated April 7, 2026, 3:46 p.m. ET
- An Upper Arlington man is believed to be the first person in the US convicted under the federal revenge porn Take It Down law.
- James Strahler, 37, pleaded guilty to multiple crimes for the creation of AI images and videos of adult women and minors. He will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Columbus on a later date.
An Upper Arlington man is believed to be the first person in the nation to be convicted under a 2025 federal law for using AI-generated, sexually explicit images of women to intimidate and harass them, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus said.
James Strahler, 37, pleaded guilty on April 7 in U.S. District Court in Columbus to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries. The criminal activity is covered under the Take It Down Act, which was enacted in 2025 by federal lawmakers and signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Strahler will be sentenced at a later date.
According to court records, Strahler had more than 24 AI platforms and 100 AI web-based models installed or downloaded on his phone. He would use phone calls, messages and online postings to harass the women.
Between December 2024 and June 2025, Strahler sent messages to at least six adult females, including three former romantic partners, that included both real and AI-generated nude images, court records say.
In one instance, Strahler created a video using AI to show one of the victims engaged in sexual acts with her father, which Strahler then sent to the victim’s coworkers, court records say. Strahler would also message the women’s mothers and demand nude photographs in exchange for not circulating explicit images that he would create.
Strahler would also leave voicemails for the victims including threats of sexual assault and would refer to specific details that told the victims he knew where they lived, court records say.
According to court records, Strahler also posted online AI-generated images of the faces of boys from his community that he would morph onto the bodies of other children or adults, as well as videos he created. Court records say the videos included the boys engaged in sexual activity with older female relatives.
More than 700 images of real people and animated people were created by Strahler and posted to a website that was dedicated to child sexual abuse material, court records say. An additional 2,400 images and videos found on his phone were flagged as having nudity, violence and/or morphed child sexual abuse material.
In January 2025, Strahler had been charged in Franklin County Municipal Court for similar alleged conduct and was on pre-trial release for those charges at the time federal charges were filed in June 2025.
Dominick Gerace, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said his office believes Strahler is the first person to be convicted under a provision of the Take It Down Act.
“We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent,” Gerace said. “We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler.”
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com.