Ex-Craig Beach chief pleads to child-porn crime

Staff report

CRAIG BEACH

Former police Chief Andrew M. Soloman, 36, pleaded guilty to a child-pornography crime, law-enforcement officials said.

Soloman is scheduled to be sentenced June 28. He pleaded guilty to one count of receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The former Craig Beach police chief met the juvenile victim when he responded to her residence for calls of harassment and a juvenile runaway. The victim sat in Soloman’s cruiser for several hours and talked, and he gave her his work email address, according to court documents.

The exchanges took place between Oct. 24 and Dec. 7. Investigators confiscated Soloman’s cellphone Dec. 7, which contained child pornography, according to the indictment.

The victim sent Soloman sexually explicit photographs of herself and Soloman responded by sending sexually explicit photographs via his work email account.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Sullivan after an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and the Austintown Police Department.