ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal court convicted a Port Clinton, Ohio, woman yesterday on charges of production and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, during in 2020, Ashley Kolhoff, 22, produced sexually explicit images of the minor victim and posted them to a website dedicated to facilitating child exploitation. Over the course of multiple days, Kolhoff distributed the images of the victim to nine other members of the website while she engaged in a series of graphic conversations discussing the users’ desire to sexually abuse the victim.
Kolhoff faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison when sentenced on July 12, 2022. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema announced the verdict.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Kramer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Schlessinger are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc
In 2021, EDVA launched “UnMasked,” a community-based educational outreach and prevention program in Virginia dedicated to raising awareness and educating the community about the prevalence of online sexual exploitation involving children and young adults. UnMasked is a multi-disciplinary partnership of local, state, federal, and non-profit stakeholders. The core curriculum is provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) NetSmartz program. To report an incident involving online sexual exploitation, call 1-800-843-5678 or submit a report at report.cybertip.org. To request an UnMasked event at your school or organization, please contact EDVA’s Community Outreach Coordinator at USAVAE-UnMasked@usdoj.gov.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:21-cr-158.