Avon firefighter faces federal child pornography charges

This story has been edited to correct the first name of the man arrested. It is Timothy McGoldrick. An Avon firefighter is in federal custody and facing felony charges for the alleged possession of thousands of images and videos of child pornography. Timothy McGoldrick Jr., 42, was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents April 16 after they served two federal search warrants at his home in Medina Township. McGoldrick has been charged with possession of child pornography and receipt and distribution of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, both felonies, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. According to an affidavit submitted by the FBI, a search of McGoldrick's IP address uncovered 1,689 images or pictures of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. The FBI said it downloaded an additional 19,672 files depicting child exploitative material, or CEM, from McGoldrick's IP address. According to the FBI, CEM is media that is child exploitative in nature but may not meet the legal definition of child pornography or does not clearly depict a minor. In a hearing Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Reuben Shepard ordered that McGoldrick remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until his preliminary hearing Thursday. Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen said that as soon as the city learned of the charges against McGoldrick, it placed him on paid administrative leave and barred him from city property pending the federal investigation. "Reading the charges from the FBI, you almost can't fathom it," Jensen said Monday. "When you read some of those things, just the sheer numbers and everything else, as I'm going through it I am just like, how? It is the worst thing you can think of. … He still has to get his day in court, but just to hear that kind of stuff, it makes you sick to your stomach." A request seeking comment was left with McGoldrick's defense attorney, Noah Munyer of Akron. McGoldrick told FBI agents that he is also a baseball coach in Medina County and a nurse at MetroHealth hospital system, the affidavit said. Before being employed by Avon, he was a firefighter in Parma Heights. According to court records, the case against McGoldrick was built as a part of the FBI's "Operation Scattered Storms" which was initiated in 2023 to identify users of file-sharing services based in Medina, Portage and Summit counties who shared or downloaded CSAM. In March, an FBI agent identified an internet protocol, or IP, address which offered 29,982 files of CSAM and 8,762 files containing sadomasochism on file-sharing services between Feb. 9 2025 and March 17, 2026. The FBI found that the IP address in question was registered to Tim McGoldrick at his home on Monterey Drive in Medina Township. On Feb. 21, agents used law enforcement tools to download thousands of files from McGoldrick's IP address, identifying 1,689 as containing CSM and 19,672 containing CEM. On April 16, agents of the Cleveland FBI and law enforcement officers from the Medina County Sheriff's Office and Medina Township Police Department carried out two federal search warrants, one on McGoldrick and one on his residence. During its search, the FBI located a USB drive in the home's basement which was found to contain 778 files, "many of which" contained CSAM. An FBI agent interviewed McGoldrick, but the interview ended when McGoldrick invoked his right to have an attorney present. "McGoldrick stated he has been consuming pornography for a long time, and that he has observed child pornography on many occasions," the affidavit said. "McGoldrick stated he uses Qbit, a version of QbitTorrent. When asked why he continues to use QbitTorrent for pornography even though he regularly encounters child pornography, he stated it was because it does not have ads." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.