Blue Ash man who placed hidden cameras in minor victims’ home sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a child

CINCINNATI - A Blue Ash man who, for years, entered a private residence without permission to install and maintain hidden cameras in the bedrooms of two minors was sentenced in federal court here today to 200 months in prison.

David Mitsnefes, 33, entered the victims' home in Blue Ash multiple times between 2021 and 2025. On multiple occasions, the family of the teenaged victims found hidden cameras in the minors' bedrooms.

"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," said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II. "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."

The defendant surreptitiously captured videos of one of the minors in the victim's bedroom in various states of undress and attempted to capture such videos of a second minor.

Mitsnefes used wifi to save videos of the minors to his iPhone. He also took the victims' underwear and kept them in his bedroom.

As part of this investigation, subsequent search of Mitsnefes's electronic devices revealed videos of the victims as well as numerous images and videos depicting child sexual abuse material obtained over the internet. He possessed more than 5,000 images and 3,000 videos of child pornography on his electronic devices.

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

Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Blue Ash Police Chief Roger Pohlman and other members of the FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force announced the sentence imposed today by Senior U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle J. Healey is representing the United States in this case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

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