Cleveland Man Pleads Guilty to Driving to New York to Sexually Exploit 14-year Old Girl

CLEVELAND – David P. Greulich, 61, of Cleveland, has pleaded guilty to driving more than 400 miles across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, to child exploitation, to transporting visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and to possession of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), also referred to as child pornography.

According to court documents, in February 2024, Greulich started communicating with a 14-year old victim living in Jefferson County, New York, on the Snapchat cellphone application. After chatting through the app’s messaging function for several weeks, the defendant drove from his home in Cleveland to New York and picked up the victim from her home on April 20, 2024. He then took her to a hotel where he kept her for two days while he violently and sexually abused her which he recorded on a digital device. Greulich drove across state lines from Ohio to New York a second time on May 11, 2024, to again engage in illicit sexual conduct with the same victim. He took video and photographs of the victim which he later emailed to himself.

During a federal search warrant execution of Greulich’s home in Cleveland, investigators obtained several electronic devices which were found to contain CSAM, including a cellphone with more than 100 images of the victim by herself as well as with the defendant. Upon further investigation, an additional 14 sexually explicit video files of the victim were found in his personal cloud storage account.

Sentencing has been scheduled for June 23, 2025. The maximum sentence varies per count. The defendant faces a maximum combined term of imprisonment of 180 years.

A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Cleveland Office, with assistance from the Jefferson County (New York) Sheriff’s Office, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Margaret A. Kane and Segev Phillips.