Man must serve 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors from Ohio and the Philippines

MARIETTA, Ohio (WCMH) – A southeast Ohio man will spend the next 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors in Ohio and the Philippines.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, 58-year-old James Sabolick of Lower Salem was sentenced in federal court to 300 months and 25 years in prison, respectively, for two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.

In January, Sabolick pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a July 2021 traffic stop in Marietta, about 15 miles south of Lower Salem, where Sabolick told officers he was alone in the car while attempting to hide a female passenger in the back seat.

An investigation by the Southeastern Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force revealed that Sabolick drove the minor from West Virginia to a hunting cabin near his Washington County residence.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office also discovered photographs showing the child being physically and sexually abused. According to court documents, the child was approximately 13 or 14 years old.

In addition, authorities discovered sexually explicit images of minors that Sabolick received on his phone in 2020 in exchange for money he sent to a Filipino woman. An online chat history with the woman was discovered and payments through Paypal, Western Union and Moneygram totaling over $1,000 were traced back to the Philippines on multiple occasions.

When he was arrested, Sabolick was initially charged with sexual battery of a minor, possession of criminal tools, and interfering with custody/transporting a child across state lines. In the federal charge, he faced up to 30 years in prison for traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual activity, producing child pornography, and possessing child pornography.