Cody Stolfa
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A former Stillwater dental assistant, who admitted sexually assaulting 15 male patients, ages 15 to 23, while they were unconscious at an oral surgery center between June and September of 2021, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison by Payne County Associate District Judge Michael Kulling.
Cody Allen Stolfa, 37, had pleaded guilty to a total of 33 felony counts including forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, having sexual contact with dogs, videotaping sexual assaults of minors and possessing more than 100 materials of explicit child pornography. Stolfa did not have an agreement with the prosecution regarding his penalty.
Stolfa, who has been jailed since July of 2024 when his first charge was filed, did not speak during his more than two-hour sentencing hearing last week at which the judge listened to nine victim impact statements in a quiet courtroom where soft crying could be heard.
Before handing him one of the longest sentences in memory in Payne County, the judge made clear that it doesn’t give him pleasure to send anyone to prison for a long time, but he told Stolfa, “You’ve earned it. You’ve committed atrocious acts.”
“The court has given these matters a great deal of thought. These are predatory criminal decisions — some of the most serious crimes, child sexual exploitation, child pornography, distribution of child pornography.
“This represents repeated conduct involving vulnerable victims under anesthesia. He was employed in a dental office. I’m not sure how he was able to pull all this off alone with victims. He then recorded the acts.
“He or someone posted one of these things on the dark web. An agent in law enforcement uncovered one of these on the dark web. The defendant poses a significant safety threat to citizens,” the judge emphasized.
Calling child sexual exploitation particularly heinous, Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent recommended that Stolfa be given life in prison on the seven counts involving minors, plus 20 years for sexual assaults on adults.
Calling Stolfa’s acts “almost beyond our comprehension,” she noted that while adults warn children about various dangers, “We don’t think we’d be subject to a predator in a medical center. Every caring well-trained medical official is affected. Everyone in our state is affected. But for the accidental discovery of the first victim, we never would have known this happened.”
Stolfa’s court-appointed attorney Jodie Gage told the judge that he has shown remorse for his actions and said, “There was no physical injury, no penetration to speak of. I question that these crimes rise to the level that he should spend life in prison.”
The judge ordered that if Stolfa is ever released from prison, he must register as a sex offender and be on probation for 10 years.
One of his victims told the judge in a written statement filed in court records, “I had to view still photos (in front of a detective and my father) taken from a live video of him touching me with his genitalia. I was 16 at the time of the assault. My assault happened while my mother sat in the waiting room lobby.
“At this point, I have not sought medical attention or therapy for mental health or physical problems due to the sexual battery and child sexual exploitation. How am I to know what long-term effects this will have on me? How would a mental health provider or you ever know? It will remain undeterminable.
“What I do know is Cody Stolfa acted on his own accord, knowingly sought out me and his other victims in our most vulnerable state. He deserves the highest, harshest, most lengthy punishment allowed by this court, and then some.”
In victim impact statements read in court Monday by the investigator and another prosecutor, one said, “I pray he’s locked up and never able to do this again.” Another victim said, “I have a constant feeling of fear and humiliation.” Another said, “I felt extremely violated and confused;” he said he has such fear of medical procedures that he prayed when his daughter had surgery.
The aunt of a victim told the judge, “This was the ultimate betrayal of an unconscious child — he disseminated that violation on the dark web. My nephew was paralyzed by fear others would learn of the sexual assault. He developed deep-seated trust issues.”
The mother of another victim read his impact statement that he was in initial training in the Army when he was told what happened to him. “It impacted my trust in medical procedures. I had a cracked crown. I delayed for months. I got an infection. It has lasting effects on my mental health.”
The investigation, which may be the largest of its type in Payne County history, began in June of 2024, after the FBI notified Stillwater police about a video sent on Telegram of an unconscious individual being sexually assaulted by a medical professional in a dental office, an affidavit said.
Stillwater Police Detective Stephanie Wheeler wrote in an affidavit that in July of 2024 after she obtained a search warrant for employee records at the oral surgery center on S. Pine, she spoke to the office manager.
“I provided her with a screenshot of the suspect in the video. I asked her if she knew him and if he was an employee. She stated it was Cody, and he did not work there very long. She provided me with his complete work file.
“I was told he was a clinical assistant. His role was to assist with dental surgery and to assist with after-surgery tasks such as recovery. I was told that Cody was relieved of his job on 10/13/2021,” the detective wrote in her affidavit.
On Oct. 23, 2024, the detective obtained a search warrant “regarding MEGA accounts linked to Cody Stolfa regarding child sexual abuse material. I located a folder labeled ‘naughty.’
“In this folder, I saw numerous videos of who I believe to be Cody Stolfa based on previous investigations, assaulting multiple males that appear to be unconscious in a dental office. I also located the video from the case which Cody was arrested for.
“I also located numerous unidentified victims which were being assaulted in the same manner,” who were subsequently identified, the detective wrote in her affidavit.
