Ohio man facing over three dozen child pornography charges receives probation

XENIA, Ohio (WCMH) — A man facing nearly 40 charges related to the use of child pornography was sentenced in Greene County.

According to court records, Donald Sparklin was investigated by the Beavercreek Police Department and brought up on charges, 38 in total, of illegal use of a minor person in nudity-oriented material and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, both second-degree felonies.

Sparklin, 68, was alleged to have “create, direct, produce or transfer” sexual material involving a minor or “advertise, sell, distribute, transport, disseminate, exhibit or display”, the material, the indictment said. The charges stem from incidents between 2017 and 2019.

Beavercreek police were notified of a 2019 federal investigation in 2023, when it was reported that the Department of Homeland Security was tracking the distribution and receiving of child pornography from Sparklin’s residence.

In January 2024, Sparklin was interviewed and his phone was confiscated. Court records stated that the phone investigated in 2024 matched the number he gave authorities in 2019.

A Greene County Common Pleas judge sentenced Sparklin, who pleaded no contest in August, to five years of probation house arrest and ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring device.

Sparklin, who will be monitored by the Green County Adult Probation Department and Ohio AMS, will be required to register as a Tier II sex offender.