Margarita Madness At The Purple People Bridge : May 17th

'Fluke Skywalker' Faces Child Pornography Charges: What We Know

John Stevens was arraigned on July 20 and given a bail amount of $200,000.

Jul 20, 2023 at 4:37 pm

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Photo: Provided by "Fluke Skywalker"

John Stevens has impersonated Skywalker as "Fluke Skywalker" since 2017, supporting charities that help children and their families through cosplay appearances. He was arraigned on child porn charges on July 20.

Local Star Wars cosplayer "Fluke Skywalker," who is known nationally for using his uncanny resemblance to Luke Skywalker to entertain kids, is facing child pornography charges.

The charges

According to court reports, John Stevens, 59, faces eight counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Court reports detail videos and photos found on Stevens' phone that depict young girls being sexually abused by different men. A prosecutor reportedly said in court that "psychologists state that the fantasy fuels the behavior in this case," referring to Stevens' Star Wars cosplay experience.

Stevens was arraigned on July 20 and given a bail amount of $200,000.

CityBeat interviewed Stevens in May 2022 about his philanthropic impersonations of Luke Skywalker for charities that work with children.

'Fluke's' history of working with children

Stevens has impersonated Skywalker as "Fluke Skywalker" since 2017. The former educator told CityBeat that it became common for people to comment on how much he looked like Mark Hamill, who has portrayed the Skywalker character throughout the Star Wars film saga. Hamill himself has even tweeted that Stevens "looks more like me than me."

This eventually spurred Stevens to ask his wife for a replica of Skywalker’s Jedi costume for his birthday so that he could distribute toys to children at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati that holiday season while in character.

He told CityBeat he began to grow his Skywalker costume collection and began frequent appearances at Ronald McDonald House and other children’s charities. Stevens never accepted payment for these events, instead asking organizers to donate to the causes that support children. On his website imflukeskywalker.com, Stevens writes "I SUPPORT CHARITIES THAT HELP CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES," and features links to donate directly to Ronald McDonald House or to a GoFundMe for Star Wars toys that are distributed to the Ronald McDonald House during the winter holidays.

Representatives for the Ronald McDonald house told CityBeat they did not have a comment about Stevens' arrest at this time.

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About The Authors

Allison Babka

Madeline Fening

Madeline Fening is CityBeat’s investigative news reporter. Proudly born and raised in Middletown, she attended Bowling Green State University before moving to Austin, Texas where she dabbled in documentary filmmaking, digital news and bartending. Madeline then moved to Cincinnati to work for WCPO 9 News as an...