Former Toulon alderman, trusted community member sentenced to 35 years on child porn charges

TOULON (25News Now) - A man who served the community of Toulon as a volunteer firefighter, city council member and was the Stark County ESDA Director has been sentenced to 35 years in prison on child pornography charges.

Jason Musselman was sentenced to 300 months on five counts of production of child pornography and 120 months for distribution of child pornography and possession of material containing a child. It’s a total of 35 years to be served consecutively.

Federal prosecutors detailed the nature of Musselman’s offenses calling him a, “long-time producer and collector of child pornography who masqueraded as a trustworthy member of the community, likely aiding in the commission of his crimes.”

Musselman was the Stark County ESDA director from November 2012 until his resignation in December 2015. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from the University of Illinois.

Musselman’s longstanding maintenance of the child pornography image and video files was fastidious.

After entering his guilty plea, Musselman moved to withdraw it. At the time he said his conduct with respect to one of the counts he had agreed to amounted to, “nothing more than an attempt to capture mere nudity.”

Prosecutors used that in part to argue his lack of willingness to accept responsibility for all the children he victimized was cause to impose a lengthy prison sentence.

In the courtroom, nine people gave victim impact statements. All who spoke talked about the trauma and anxiety Musselman’s actions caused them. Each woman spoke about Musselman’s prevalence and position of trust in the community.

The identity is not known for all the victims. The exact number is also unclear.

Musselman DJ’d prom, was an announcer at school sporting events and helped with the town’s beauty pageants and photographed sports for the county newspaper.

In addition to the 35-year prison sentence, Musselman was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and is required to pay at least $60,000 in restitution.

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