90 Day Fiance star Michael Eloshway revealed his plans to ask a higher court to review his 10-year prison sentence in hopes of having it lowered, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, Michael and his legal team filed a notice of appeal on October 30 in federal court, only weeks after being sentenced to a decade behind bars.
Michael said he wants the appeal court to review the jury verdict, and the final judgment entered in his criminal case.
As In Touch previously reported, in October, Michael was found guilty on two felony counts related to possessing videos of children being abused.
After his release from prison, Michael will have to serve 10 years on probation, have his computer activity monitored and will have to register as a sex offender.
In addition, Michael will have to pay $10,000 in fines and $5,000 to two victims that was featured in videos found on Michael’s computer.
Prior to the sentencing, prosecutors argued that Michael should serve 20 years in prison for his crimes. The judge decided on 10 years due to Michael’s lack of criminal history.
The court also noted that Michael passed a polygraph test where he claimed he never planned to meet any minor children in real life. Michael denied the allegations.
He admitted to downloading explicit videos on his computer but said he deleted any videos he deemed to be illegal. Michael was arrested after he shared videos with an undercover agent.
Prosecutors did not believe Michael’s claim he accidentally downloaded the videos in question. The prosecutors called Michael “more than just a casual observer who happened to download [illegal videos] when seeking legal pornography.”
As In Touch first reported, Michael’s wife, Aziza Eloshway, and his mom, Kerry Eloshway, both wrote letters to the court pleading for a soft sentence.
Kerry claimed Michael had been involved in a 2021 car crash that left him with broken ribs and hip. She said he experienced a great deal of grief after losing his friend to suicide and three relatives passing away.
On top of that, Kerry said Michael’s only sibling, his sister Amy, was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer.
“Michael has always been a faithful husband and devoted father,” Kerry said. “He has never been the type of guy to go out with friends, always preferring to be home with his family.”
Michael’s mom added, “I understand the gravity of Michael’s extremely poor decision making. I truly believe that working from home through COVID, his accident and the losses our family faced put him into a severe depression. I know he did become increasingly addicted to pornography during that period.”
Kerry continued, “I acknowledge the severity of Mike’s lack of judgment and self-control. He made a horrific mistake that has caused him to lose his $80,000 a year job, his freedom, his life savings to pay for his attorney. He lost a great reputation, his standing in the community and mostly his own self respect.”
Aziza told the court, “We have a five-year-old daughter together. Her name is Olivia and Mike is a very involved parent. She is very attached to Mike as he is a very loving and caring dad. They go on father-daughter dates all the time; they share hobbies like collecting rocks, making bread from scratch and reading books together.”
She added, “It breaks my heart that my daughter will not have her father in the full capacity, and I know it will disturb her life greatly not having him around.”
“He would do anything for his daughter, and it absolutely kills him that he will have to be apart from her,” she said. “Mike is my family and the closest person that I have, and I cannot imagine my life without him.”
