Columbiana County Common Pleas Court security bailiff Steve Boyd prepares to escort Joseph Paul Sabella out of the courtroom in handcuffs after he was sentenced to prison for 25 to 27 years for charges related to his extensive collection of pornographic images of children. (Photo by Mary Ann Greier)

LISBON — A wolf in sheep’s clothing — that’s how Judge Megan Bickerton described former hospital chaplain Joseph Paul Sabella before sentencing him Friday to 25 to 27 years in prison for downloading, printing and possessing 12,000-plus images of children engaged in sex acts.

“You clearly have a pornography addiction, something you could have addressed well before this snowballed,” she said.

Sabella, 38, formerly of Beloit with a current address in Youngstown, addressed the Columbiana County Common Pleas Court judge at length about what he did, apologizing to the many unknown child victims portrayed engaging in sex acts in his expansive collection of images and videos, saying he understood that requires prison time. He apologized to his family and friends and anyone he ministered to as chaplain at Aultman Alliance Community Hospital.

“I wish I could say that wasn’t me, what I allowed myself to become,” he said, but he added, “I’m the one who allowed it to become an addiction. No amount was ever enough, the more I downloaded, the more I needed.”

Sabella said “down deep, I knew it was horribly wrong. I knew I was a hypocrite, living a lie.”

He said he was very selfish and made a mockery of God and all his blessings. Since being caught, he’s been in counseling and said he plans to take advantage of all the counseling and courses he can take in prison. He wants to be the best person he can and said he’s grateful he still has support from family members and friends, including the relatives in the courtroom. The court acknowledged receiving several letters of support for Sabella.

Bickerton, though, pointed out that he’s a preacher and he just gave a sermon to the court. She said she couldn’t ignore the position of trust he held or the number of images involved –12, 118 — of naked children engaged in sex and sex acts. Real victims of sex abuse, not just photos.

“This didn’t happen in one day, one month or even one year. This spanned a decade,” she said.

In May, Sabella pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree felony pandering obscenity involving a minor or impaired person and 50 counts of fourth-degree felony pandering obscenity involving a minor or impaired person. He was accompanied by his defense attorney, Ron Yarwood, who pointed out his client gave answers on the pre-sentence investigation that were not in his favor.

“My client made no excuses for his behavior,” he said.

As part of the plea deal, four second-degree felony counts of pandering and 15 fourth-degree felony counts of pandering will be dismissed.

Bickerton followed the recommendation of county Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Bonish, issuing a sentence of four to six years each for the six second-degree felony pandering counts, to be served consecutively with each other for a total of 24 years, plus an additional year for the 50 fourth-degree felony pandering counts being served concurrently, bringing the grand total to 25 years that Sabella must serve. If the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections deems it necessary, another two years could be added to bring the maximum possible total to 27 years. He received credit for two days served in jail. He was also designated a Tier II sex offender requiring registration every 180 days for 25 years.

Bonish described how Sabella was caught, explaining that he uploaded and published a video, which a court affidavit said was a child being sexually assaulted by an adult male, and Microsoft flagged the video and notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in April 2025, which generated a cyber tip sent to East Palestine Police Detective Dan Haueter, who’s an agent of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force.

A search warrant was executed on July 2, 2025 at Sabella’s Beloit home. Up in the ceiling of the garage, agents located a bookbag which contained images printed on regular paper and some on photo quality paper, even some images ripped out of magazines. They seized electronic devices, including three external hard drives and a computer and they all contained images of child pornography. They were organized in a series of folders. He even had a Lolita catalog from the 1970s that he scanned into his computer so he would have an electronic image.

“He spent time with these, like this was a valued collection,” Bonish said.

She said these are videos and images of real children, not in provocative poses or dressed scantily, but naked and performing sex acts with adult males.

“These are prepubescent girls being raped, being raped by adults,” she said.

Bonish said Sabella presented an added danger since he was working as a chaplain, someone people trust and wouldn’t expect to be looking at a child in a sexual way. Her hope is that other people like Sabella get help before it results in thousands of images, or before escalating to putting hands on a child.

“The state is certainly very, very grateful to the court and satisfied with the outcome of this case. I think that it sends a message, not only that the court is serious about protecting children that are out in the community, but also that defendants cannot be doing this. People think they’re doing this in the privacy of their own home…they need to know there are going to be real consequences for possessing and making images like this or sharing them,” Bonish said.

In Sabella’s case, he had no criminal record. People had no reason to think he would be a danger.

When his defense attorney spoke, he said Sabella was willing to accept responsibility and he knew the court would be fair. He asked the court to consider concurrent terms, not consecutive terms.

“He acknowledges that what he did was immoral, illegal and wrong,” Yarwood said.

mgreier@mojonews.com