CLEVELAND — A Cleveland police officer will serve nearly a decade in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.
Brandon Crites, 33, admitted to the charges against him back in April. On Friday, U.S. District Senior Judge Donald C. Nugent issued a penalty of nine years and two months behind bars with credit for time served, along with more than $10,000 in fines and five years of probation upon his release.
"I have no excuse for anything that has been done," Crites told the court, according to 3News media partner Cleveland.com.
Crites was arrested last October, with prosecutors saying he had received, distributed, and possessed numerous images of minors engaged in sexually explicit content. According to the indictment, at least one of the images involved a child who was less than 12 years old.
"The number, volume, and length of some of these videos is almost unprecedented," Nugent said, per Cleveland.com.
Crites, a resident of Parma, was hired as a member of the Cleveland Division of Police in 2019 and eventually assigned to the second district. In accordance with department protocol, he was suspended without pay at the time of his arrest, and now his status as a convicted felon means he can no longer serve as a police officer anywhere in the state of Ohio again.