Blue Ash Man Sentenced to Over 16 Years for Installing Hidden Cameras to Exploit Minors

CINCINNATI – A Blue Ash man was sentenced today in federal court to 200 months in prison for the sexual exploitation of minors through the installation of hidden cameras in their bedrooms. David Mitsnefes, 33, repeatedly entered a private residence without authorization between 2021 and 2025 to place and maintain concealed recording devices.

During this period, the family of the teenage victims discovered multiple hidden cameras in the minors’ bedrooms. Mitsnefes used these devices to surreptitiously capture videos of one minor in various states of undress and attempted to record a second minor as well.

U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II condemned Mitsnefes’s actions, stating, “By invading the most private spaces in their lives, David Mitsnefes destroyed his victims’ sense of safety and stripped them of the fundamental expectation of privacy within their own home. Over the course of years, he inflicted profound and lasting damage on the minors and their family. This conduct calls for the sentence he received today.”

Investigators found that Mitsnefes used Wi-Fi technology to transfer the illicit videos to his iPhone. Additionally, he took the victims’ underwear and kept these items in his bedroom.

A subsequent search of Mitsnefes’s electronic devices uncovered videos of the victims as well as a substantial cache of child sexual abuse material obtained from the internet. Authorities seized more than 5,000 images and 3,000 videos of child pornography from his devices.

Mitsnefes was federally charged and arrested in December 2025. He pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child in July 2026.

The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II, FBI Cincinnati Division Special Agent in Charge Jason Cromartie, Blue Ash Police Chief Roger Pohlman, and members of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Senior U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle J. Healey represented the government.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006. The program coordinates federal, state, and local resources to identify, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet and to rescue victims.

The case underscores the federal commitment to combating child sexual exploitation and protecting vulnerable minors from invasive and criminal conduct.

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