“I AM WILLING TO DRIVE HUNDREDS OF MILES”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, PROSECUTORS SAY FORMER OHIO BASKETBALL COACH MICHAEL NEVILLE TRAVELED TO MEET A 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND DISTRIBUTED SADISTIC CHILD ABUSE MATERIAL… AND HE NOW FACES DECADES IN FEDERAL PRISON AFTER PLEADING GUILTY.
Michael Neville, 47, is a former Ohio school basketball coach.
He entered a guilty plea on August 26 to five federal counts.
The charges include receipt, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material.
They also include interstate travel for illicit sexual conduct and sexual exploitation of children.
Neville admitted to driving more than 700 miles to meet a 13-year-old girl.
He had been messaging the 13-year-old girl for about a year.
Neville took the child to a Massachusetts hotel.
He admitted to coercing her into sexual conduct at the hotel.
Investigators also searched his electronic devices.
They found material involving prepubescent children on those devices.
And investigators said Neville distributed sadistic material depicting the abuse of an infant.
Between January 2024 and September 2025, Neville also engaged in online communication with an undercover agent.
That undercover agent was posing as the father of a 9-year-old girl.
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Neville sent sexually explicit messages to the undercover agent.
Prosecutors said those conversations focused heavily on Neville’s sexual interest in children.
Then investigators uncovered further illicit communications on his accounts.
They discovered that he solicited sexually explicit images from a second minor.
Neville previously worked as an athletic coach in Ohio.
He formerly served as the head boys’ basketball coach at Lake Ridge Academy.
He also previously coached the junior-varsity girls’ basketball team at Bay High School.
Lake Ridge stated that there is no indication its students or employees were involved.
Both schools reported receiving no complaints about Neville during his employment.
The case was investigated and prosecuted following work by the FBI Cleveland Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.
Neville now awaits federal sentencing.
The two most serious counts to which he pleaded guilty each carry a penalty of up to 30 years in federal prison.
The other three counts each carry potential maximum sentences of 20 years.
Neville will be sentenced on December 10.
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