A former Cleveland pastor has been sentenced to eight years in prison after he entered a guilty plea to the indicted charge of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Richard Lee Sentell, a former pastor at Cornerstone Church of God in Cleveland, will have to serve his sentence at theTennessee Department of Corrections. He will not be eligible for parole.
Sentell was Trying to Upload Child Pornography to AI Website That Finds Similar Images
In the summer of 2023, the Cleveland Police Department received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ("NCMEC"). The tip stated that a user in Cleveland, Tennessee uploaded two images of child sexual abuse material to a website called BingImage.
BingImage is an AI-assisted tool which allows a user to upload an image and locate additional images which are similar to the one uploaded. BingImage blocked the uploads and reported the activity to NCMEC. NCMEC notified the Cleveland Police Department.
The Cleveland Police's investigation revealed that the uploads of the images originated at an address on Overbrook Circle in Cleveland, Tennessee. The home was owned by Sentell and his wife. Sentell was, at the time, the senior pastor at Cornerstone Church of God.
Investigators Found Hundreds of Images of Children Being Sexually Assaulted at Sentell's Home
Detective Landolt obtained a search warrant for the property. Detectives from the Cleveland Police Department discovered a suspicious laptop located wedged between a mattress and a box spring in a downstairs bedroom in the residence.
Detectives Landolt searched the laptop and discovered 124 unique images of child sexual abuse material. The majority of the images depicted prepubescent children being sexually assaulted.
Data on the laptop indicated that Richard Lee Sentell was the owner and user of the laptop. Additionally, data on the laptop indicated that Mr. Sentell had searched for and otherwise sought out child sexual abuse material for many months, typically late at night or early in the morning.
