Mike Davis, a former chief meteorologist for WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, will plead guilty to multiple counts of child porn next week, according to court records filed on Thursday.
Davis is agreeing to the guilty plea on three counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and one count of possession of sexually oriented matter involving a minor.
In September, Davis was arrested at his home near Columbus as authorities searched both his home computer and his work computer at the TV station. Investigators said in October that Davis had downloaded a "significant amount" of child porn.
“Over a period of several years, Davis downloaded a significant amount of images depicting nude children and child pornography on several devices and was emailing the images and child pornography to himself. There is no evidence he produced the images or sent them to anyone else.” Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said.
Davis had been employed by the station until the day after his arrest in September.
“Between October 2018 and September 2019, the indictment alleges that Davis downloaded and emailed to himself videos and images depicting young children engaging in sexual activity,” O’Brien said.
O'Brien's office said that the county sheriff's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a Yahoo! Inc. account associated with Davis’ email address had downloaded a significant amount of suspected child pornography.
In a court filing on Thursday, Davis' attorney Terry K. Sherman claimed that he suffered from "numerous mental health issues." The lawyer claimed that Davis used child porn to "self-medicate." Sherman added that Davis has been receiving mental health treatment since his arrest.
According to WBNS, O'Brien has not offered a plea deal and is seeking jail time.
Sherman is requesting that Davis be accepted into a treatment facility in his court filing.
