News and Investigations

Polk County Sheriff's Office Cyber Crimes detectives arrested 47-year-old Steven Gugel of Mulberry and charged him with 3 counts generating altered sex depiction without consent and 5 counts creating generated child pornography after locating images on his cell phone that he created using real juvenile victims.

The investigation began on March 9, 2026, when a woman reported finding the disturbing images on his phone. She told detectives that she sometimes checks his phone due to the fact that she knows he looks at pornography. When she went into the phone's folders, she found images of three girls (children) that Gugel has access to; the images appeared to be manipulated by artificial intelligence, placing their faces onto nude adult bodies displayed in lewd manners.

On March 10th, detectives interviewed Gugel and he admitted to using an AI program to alter the images to depict the children as having adult nude women's bodies. Detectives seized his phone for further forensic analysis.

“This is a disgusting example for those who think putting the faces of children onto already-existing sexually explicit pornography is harmless and not against the law. He is facing 8 felonies and will likely not have access to children once his criminal case is resolved.” —Grady Judd, Sheriff

Gugel was booked into the Polk County Jail and is behind held on no bond.