Judge denies former 10TV’S Mike Davis’ request for early release
A Franklin County judge has denied a petition for early release from prison filed by former WBNS-10TV meteorologist Mike Davis, who was convicted last year of having thousands of child porn images.
Judge Karen Held-phipps denied Davis’ request to receive judicial release on Thursday, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Court records.
Davis, 62, has been serving a four- to six-year prison sentence at Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County. He was convicted in January 2020 of multiple counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor and was sentenced in May 2020.
He filed a motion for early release through his attorney on Sept. 30.
Davis had worked as a meteorologist for WBNS-10TV for more than 30 years prior to his arrest in September 2019. Court records showed more than 15,000 images of child pornography, including images involving children as young as 4 years old, were found on Davis’ laptop and in his email.
In sentencing Davis in May 2020, Phipps had called the facts of the case “horrendous” and said Davis had only shown concern for himself, refusing to acknowledge the children who were victims.
In the motion filed on Sept. 30, Davis’ attorney, Adam Nemann, said Davis has been accepted into a community-based correctional facility that has an “intensive sex offender rehabilitation program.” Nemann said Davis has been meeting with a psychologist weekly while he has been incarcerated and has maintained the lowest security level available to inmates.
“His fall from grace is a punishment worse than any prison sentence, yet he is pulling himself above the self-pity to move forward with a focus on rehabilitation and family,” Nemann wrote in the motion.
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Kara Keating had written in her rebuttal motion that Davis has lacked genuine remorse and refuses to acknowledge that what he did was wrong.
Judge Phipps sided with the prosecution in denying the motion, writing in her order that Davis offered mostly evidence that she had previously considered at sentencing, including letters from Davis’ relatives that had been written at the time of the sentencing.
“Additionally, Defendant persists in arguing that his ‘fall from grace’ should be considered in the context of whether he has been punished enough,” Phipps wrote. “Defendant’s references to damage to both his personal and professional life merely show the consequences of his criminal conduct.” bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner