HUNTINGTON – A former Putnam County attorney has been sentenced to six years in prison on child pornography charges.
U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart on Aug. 27 said Stephen Craig Sluss, 59, of Scott Depot previously pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers imposed the sentence.
Sluss was ordered to serve 15 years on federal supervised release after completion of his prison term, and will also be required to register as a sex offender. Sluss was also ordered to pay a special assessment of $5,000.
Sluss
“These are violent, heinous, disgusting crimes,” Stuart said. “Child sexual exploitation investigations and prosecutions are a priority for my office. Sluss’s sentence reflects the seriousness of these crimes.
"I greatly appreciate the excellent and hard work of the West Virginia State Police, the West Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the United States Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations.”
Sluss admitted that on April 1, 2017, he received videos of prepubescent minors engaged in sex acts. The videos were received by Sluss via the Internet. The investigation revealed that Sluss was using a web-based chatting service to access and download child pornography, Sluss further admitted to possessing over 600 images and videos of minors engaged in sex acts, and that some of those images involved sadistic conduct.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa G. Johnston and Jennifer Rada Herrald handled the prosecution.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Sluss was suspended by the state Supreme Court on Feb. 14. It also appointed a trustee to protect the interests of Stephen C. Sluss’ clients. On Dec. 13, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel presented a petition seeking the immediate suspension of Sluss and the appointment of a trustee.
Sluss, whose Putnam County practice was located just across the street from Hurricane Middle School, was charged with receipt of child pornography after an investigation that started in May. Sluss also is a former assistant prosecuting attorney in Kanawha County as well as a former Mineral County commissioner and House of Delegate member.
The criminal complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on Dec. 4.
Sgt. Talia Divita, a West Virginia State Police officer working in the Crimes Against Children Unit, authored the complaint.
On May 13, ChatStep, an online group chat site, alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user had uploaded an image of possible child pornography and identified Sluss’ user name.
On May 22, Divita reviewed the image, which was of a minor female between the ages of 12 and 15 years old. She then obtained an administrative subpoena in order to identify who the user name belonged to, according to court documents.
A forensic examination was done on Sluss’ computers and five video files were found that contained minor females between the ages of 5 and 7 performing sex acts.
