HOCKING COUNTY, Ohio — A Hocking County woman pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting children and possessing child pornography on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Carrie Daniels, 41, was charged in April, along with her significant other, 37-year-old Robert Gemienhardt.
Gemienhardt pleaded guilty to related offenses last month.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from the messenger app, Kik, about Gemienhardt's online child exploitation activities conducted at Daniels' residence, according to the DOJ.
The sheriff's office executed a search warrant and found Daniels produced child pornography of a 3-year-old child and distributed the images to Gemienhardt. Those images were als found on Gemienhardt's phone.
The DOJ said further evidence revealed that at times, Gemienhardt and Daniels acted together and produced child pornography through the grooming and sexual abuse of minor victims they had access to between April and June 2020.
Daniels and Gemienhardt, who was a registered sex offender in Ohio, exchanged thousands of illicit text messages detailing their sexual fantasies about four children to whom they had access to. The messages also revealed the couple had plans to act out some of those fantasies by sexually abusing some of the children.
Sexually exploiting a minor is punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison. Possessing child pornography is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Both Daniels and Gemienhardt await sentencing.
