Ohio man becomes first in country to be convicted under federal revenge porn law

An Ohio man who became the first person in the country to be convicted under the federal revenge porn law would be able to eventually reintegrate into society after Ohio lawmakers introduced several bills, some of which were already passed by the legislators.

Among the ways the bills would help the man and other criminals reintegrate into society after serving their sentences are helping inmates obtain state identification before release and preventing private employers from asking about or considering a job applicant’s criminal background.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus told The Columbus Dispatch that James Strahler, 37, of Upper Arlington, 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, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries.

The court documents obtained by the news source also indicated that Strahler had more than 24 AI platforms and 100 AI web-based models installed or downloaded on his phone, adding that he used phone calls, messages, and online posts to harass the women.

The court records also said that 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.

In addition to creating AI images of women, he would also blackmail mothers of those women by forcing them to send him their nude photos so that he would not circulate the fake explicit images of their daughters, leave sexual assault-related voicemails to the victims, and post AI-generated pornographic images of boys being raped by their female relatives.

The Dispatch reported that Strahler created more than 700 images of real and AI-generated people and posted them to a website that was dedicated to child sexual abuse material. The authorities also flagged an additional 2,400 images and videos found on Strahler’s phone as having nudity, violence and/or morphed child sexual abuse material.

“We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent,” Dominick Gerace, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, told The Dispatch. “We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler.”

Meanwhile, anyone who is not sentenced to life in prison or death would have a chance to rejoin society, thanks to new bills introduced by Ohio lawmakers.

House Bill 296 would prohibit a court from requiring someone to pay any outstanding court-assessed fines or fees from a criminal proceeding for 180 days after they are released from a prison sentence lasting a year or more.

House Bill 393 would expand a program that helps inmates obtain state identification cards before their release from prison. House Bill 268 would reduce the time someone must wait to apply for a Certificate of Qualification for Employment if they were incarcerated for a felony.

Senate Bill 143 would prevent private employers from asking about or considering a job applicant’s criminal background, at least on an initial employment application.

Two other bills targeting eviction from a rented property, House Bill 368 and Senate Bill 204, would require eviction records to be automatically sealed three years after a case’s final judgment entry and create a procedure to suppress eviction records, respectively.