Lucas County Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Coercion, Enticement, and Child Pornography Charges

TOLEDO, Ohio - A 40-year-old man has been sentenced to federal prison for arranging to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a purported 12-year-old boy and for Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) charges.

Eben Vondruska, of Toledo, was sentenced to 168 months (14 years) in prison by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey J. Helmick, after pleading guilty in July to:

• Coercion or Enticement of a Minor
• Receipt and Distribution of Child Pornography, or CSAM

Vondruska was also ordered to serve 15 years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $10,000 toward the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which was established in 2015 to provide justice for victims of trafficking.

According to court documents, Toledo law enforcement was investigating suspected Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) activity on an online platform-that was also distributed to an undercover agent-and Vondruska was subsequently identified. He was communicating online with an undercover agent who purported to have a 12-year-old son and indicated his desire to meet the fictitious boy at a prearranged location for the purpose of engaging in illegal sexual conduct with him. When Vondruska arrived at the agreed-upon location, he was apprehended by law enforcement and taken into custody. During a search warrant executed at his residence, Vondruska's electronic devices were seized and forensically examined. Investigators found that from about September 2025 to February 2026, he knowingly distributed visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Additionally, investigators learned that Vondruska had prior criminal convictions for sexual offenses in 2011 and 2013 in Xenia, Ohio, and that he had failed to register as a sex offender there.

The investigation was led by the FBI Toledo Resident Agency's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the Toledo Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorneys Sara Al-Sorghali and Frank Spryszak led the prosecution for the Northern District of Ohio.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The initiative is led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices throughout the country and 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit justice.gov/PSC.

To report child exploitation, please visit cybertipline.orgLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link., or call 1-800-843-5678, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.