CINCINNATI — A Hamilton man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for child pornography crimes, including secretly recording young girls nude and grooming a minor, according to Dominick S. Gerace II, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Gerace said that 34-year-old Jonathan Brown hid outside bedroom windows and placed cameras inside a laundry basket to record minors after they exited showers. Brown told those he recorded that he needed to see their bodies for "medical reasons," Gerace said.
According to court documents, Brown also groomed a teenager, beginning when she was 15, and solicited pictures and sexual behaviors from the teen. Gerace said Brown filmed himself having sex with the teen and also used emotional ploys of suicide or self-harm to manipulate them.
Brown was discovered at a Dayton hotel with the teen in August 2024, where he led law enforcement on a multi-jurisdiction, high-speed chase involving the Ohio State Patrol Aviation Team and a SWAT team. Authorities had to deploy stop sticks, and Brown drove his truck into a moving train, Gerace said. Even then, Brown did not surrender and had an hours-long standoff with law enforcement until he was forced to exit the truck due to tear gas and a K9 officer.
Gerace said Brown pleaded guilty in October 2025 to producing and attempting to produce child pornography. On Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to 360 months in prison.
The case against Brown is part of Project Safe Childhood, which is a nationwide initiative launched in May 2005 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
