LORAIN COUNTY, Ohio — Mike Davis, a former 10TV meteorologist, was released from prison on Saturday.
Davis served four years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of pandering sexually-oriented material involving a minor. He initially faced between 25 to 29.5 years but was sentenced to a minimum of four years.
Members of Franklin County’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip in the summer of 2019 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about activity on Davis’ email account.
Authorities said Davis downloaded and emailed child sexual abuse images to himself over a period of about seven years.
He was fired from 10TV after his arrest in September 2019. He had worked at the station for more than three decades.
At his sentencing hearing, Davis apologized to his friends and family and said there was "no excuse" for his compulsive collection of nearly 16,000 images depicting the sexual abuse of children.
Davis’ lawyer had asked that his client be sent to a therapy program rather than prison. In court filings, defense attorney Terry Sherman argued that Davis used pornography in an attempt to self-medicate after suffering for years with various mental health issues, including severe depression and anxiety.
“These are victims who were groomed and abused for years to get them to participate in these acts,” Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Karen Held Phipps said when imposing Davis' sentence. “You chose to support an industry that re-victimized these children over and over for years.”
Davis will have to register as a Tier II sex offender for 25 years.
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