Ohio man who preyed on New Canaan girl faces sentencing Thursday
HARTFORD — An Ohio man is being sentenced Thursday after posting explicit videos of a New Canaan minor to social media, according to Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut Leonard Boyle.
In April, Brian Grinnell, 36, of Lakewood, Ohio, pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography.
The charge stemmed from an incident from March 2020 in which Grinnell pretended to be a 15-year-old girl and met an 11-year-old girl from New Canaan on an online chat website. Authorities said Grinnell told the victim to send him sexually explicit videos of herself. He later posted the videos on TikTok, according to officials.
Grinnell’s sentencing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday. He has been detained since his arrest Sept. 23, 2020.
In a memo from his attorney, Grinnell requested that he receive the mandatory minimum sentence for his offense of five years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. Grinnell also requested that he be sentenced to the Federal Correctional Institution Elkton, a low-security prison in Ohio that has a sexual offender treatment program.
The State’s Attorney’s office is requesting the judge sentence Grinnell in the recommended guidelines of about 10 to 12 years in prison.
“The record reveals no mitigating factors at all, much less one that would support a deviation from the recommended guidelines,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Levens wrote in a sentencing memo.
“Grinnell called his conduct ‘an aberration,’ ” Levens said. “But it instead was a calculated, cold-hearted series of actions taken over the course of several days, which have forever changed the trajectory of a child’s life.”
“His actions have inflicted trauma and have had a devastating and heartbreaking impact on an innocent victim, her family, and her community,” Levens added.
Cases of child exploitation can be reported at www.cybertipline.com.
Those who have suffered from sexual violence can speak to specialists for support, information, advice or a referral by calling the free and confidential National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). Those who wish to chat online with trained specialists, which is also free and confidential, can also go to www.RAINN.org/Get-Help. Help is available 24/7.