Professional bowler facing child pornography charges after mid-game arrest at US Open

A professional bowler arrested by U.S. marshals while playing in the U.S. Open earlier this month has been extradited from Indiana to Ohio to face charges related to child sex abuse material.

Brandon Novak, 35, of Chillicothe, Ohio, was transferred Thursday from the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis to the Ross County Jail in Ohio, where he is being held on charges of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material and pandering to sexually oriented cases involving a minor, according to court records. The records do not indicate whether he has retained a lawyer.

Novak was taken into custody on Feb. 1 during the 2024 US Open bowling tournament in Indianapolis, but at the time authorities would say only that he was wanted on an arrest warrant stemming from an undisclosed indictment.

When authorities arrested Novak, he was in the seventh frame of his second match of the tournament. Video footage from The 11th Frame YouTube channel claims to show the moment Novak was arrested. Novak is out of the picture, but several other bowlers turn their heads towards his lane during the action.

Even after his arrest, Novak had a high enough score to finish 36th and win $1,500 in prize money.

According to a report, Novak had been under investigation by Chillicothe police since February 2023 obtained by the Columbus Dispatch through an Ohio Public Records Act request. It stated that a Chillicothe Police Department detective had received a complaint from Facebook about Novak’s account being associated with child sexual abuse material.

According to the report, authorities soon executed a search warrant at Novak’s home and questioned him. During the interview, Novak said he had purchased pornography from someone on the social media app Snapchat, but initially said he did not know the videos would contain child sexual abuse. He later admitted that he knew he was purchasing child sex abuse material and took steps to conceal it, authorities said.

Novak has been a professional bowler for more than a decade and has won two tournaments, according to his profile on the website Website of the professional bowlers association.

The Ohio native has a hearing scheduled for March 21. As of Friday, no attorney was listed in court records.