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Lower Salem man sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexual exploitation of minors

Staff Reports

COLUMBUS — A Lower Salem man was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors in the U.S. and the Philippines.

James A. Sabolick, 58, brought a West Vriginia minor to his Washington County hunting cabin to engage in illicit sex acts and sent money to Filipino women for their basic living expenses in exchange for child sexual abuse material, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release.

Sabolick pleaded guilt in January to two counts of sexually exploiting a minor and one count of possessing child pornography, the release said.

The release said court documents show on July 24, 2021, Marietta Police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Sabolick and he told officers he was alone while attempting to conceal a minor female in the vehicle, who the officers found in the backseat.

Upon further investigation by the Southeastern Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, it was discovered Sabolick had driven the minor female from West Virginia to a cabin near his residence in Washington County to engage in various sex acts with the minor, according to the release.

“Some of the sex acts involved abuse such as needle pokes, lighter burns, restraints, strangulation and urination,” the release said.

According to the release, panty hose, lubricant and a box of t-pins were recovered from Sabolick’s vehicle during the investigation and Sabolick photographed the minor female during the sexual abuse.

The release said court documents show Sabolick met the minor female when she was approximately 13 or 14 years old and he possessed several communications and nude images of the minor female on his phone.

According to the release, forensic review of Sabolick’s electronic devices and social media accounts showed he communicated with Filipino women he knew from trips to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.

The release said the women asked Sabolick for money for basic living expenses and in exchange he requested sexually explicit images of the women’s minor children and offered to send them money for the child sexual abuse material.

According to the release, one such instance happened in December 2020 when Sabolick sent money to a Filipino woman for images of her daughter’s genitalia.

The release said financial records showed numerous transactions to the Philippines – including to the Filipino women identified in the investigation – that totaled more than $1,000 and that were conducted on the same days Sabolick asked the women for child pornography.

“We are dedicated to working across all levels of law enforcement to hold people accountable for their crimes, no matter where they exploit their victims,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth L. Parker said in the release.

“Our priority is putting perpetrators like Sabolick behind bars for significant periods of time so that they can no longer prey on the vulnerable. The sentence imposed today does just that.”

According to the release, the case was investigated by the Southeastern Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force and the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.

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