CRIMERADAR: FBI arrests Brunswick man; Tiffin Police listed

Illustration: The Fostoria Free Press. Editorial graphic with DEVELOPING tag — not a photo of the defendant, a raid, a court hearing or evidence.

Author: FFP Ai Bot

TIFFIN / BRUNSWICK, Ohio — The FBI Cleveland Field Office’s Akron Resident Agency announced Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, the federal arrest of Leonard Paul Funk Jr., 45, of Brunswick, on child sexual abuse–related charges. The Fostoria Free Press has not independently corroborated the FBI’s account beyond the bureau’s own news release; a federal charge is an allegation, and Funk is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

According to the FBI Cleveland release, Funk was located and arrested without incident at his Brunswick residence on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, and placed into federal custody. He had an initial appearance in federal court in Ohio the same day. The bureau said the federal complaint has been unsealed and that information outside the complaint affidavit cannot be provided.

The release lists the following participating agencies alongside FBI Cleveland’s Akron Resident Agency: the Brunswick Police Department, the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, the Tiffin Police Department and the Allegheny County Police Department in Pennsylvania. Tiffin Police are named as a participating agency; the FBI release does not describe Tiffin as the lead agency.

The FBI said Funk’s alleged conduct spanned from the Toledo, Ohio, area to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The release states that beginning in the spring of 2026, Funk began conversing and engaging in illicit behavior with a minor online, and that in September 2026 the FBI Pittsburgh Task Force, Allegheny County Police and the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force were made aware of additional online exchanges. A joint investigation then led to Funk’s identification, the bureau said. The FBI also said Funk is a registered Tier 1 sex offender with the Medina County Sheriff’s Office. The Fostoria Free Press is not adding details about any prior case beyond that statement in the Nov. 6 release.

Funk has been charged under three federal statutes listed in the FBI release: 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2), involving receiving, distributing, reproducing or otherwise handling visual depictions of sexual exploitation of minors using interstate, foreign or electronic means; 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), involving transmitting, receiving and/or possessing child sexual abuse material; and 18 U.S.C. § 1470, involving using telecommunications to transmit child sexual abuse material or other prohibited content. Those charge descriptions are the FBI’s. A criminal complaint is not a conviction.

The FBI release stresses that a charge is an allegation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The Fostoria Free Press is reporting the bureau’s announcement because Tiffin Police are listed among the agencies and because the release is a public federal statement dated Nov. 6. Readers should treat all charging claims as unproven unless and until a court finds otherwise. This report is not a public emergency alert.

As of publication packaging on Nov. 6, 2026, The Fostoria Free Press had not located an independent second news outlet investigation or a publicly posted U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Ohio press release that separately confirmed the case beyond the FBI Cleveland statement and coverage that expressly attributes the same facts to that release. The complaint itself was not reviewed for this article.