The News Room [News Release]
Sheriff Contact: John Roach: 313-213-5162
Release Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Internet Deputies arrest Ypsilanti man on multiple child sex abuse-related charges
34-year old man solicited sex online &had large child porn library
Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested an Ypsilanti man who they say solicited sex from what he thought was a 14-year old girl, exposed himself over the Internet and was found to have thousands of child pornographic images and movies on his home computer, Sheriff Warren Evans said today. The young girl was, in reality, an undercover Sheriff’s investigator.
Evans said his Internet Crime Unit Officers arrested Alan Burk, a 34-year-old Ann Arbor department store employee, on Friday after executing a search warrant at his home in Ypsilanti. While scanning Burk’s hard drive for evidence of his chat logs with the officers, investigators found more than they expected.
“Initially, this case was primarily about Mr. Burk’s multiple sexual solicitations to our undercover officer,” Evans said. “However, as we find in many of these cases, the suspect also was a major collector of child pornography.”
Evans said that while the investigation is continuing, there is nothing to suggest at this point that Burk was manufacturing or distributing the child pornography, which would be a seven year felony as opposed to a four year penalty for possession.
According to Evans, his investigators had chatted with Burk nearly a dozen times in recent weeks. During that time Burk had indicated his wishes to have sex with the young girl on at least two occasions. To prove his intentions, Evans said, Burk went so far as to expose himself to the undercover officer via a web camera attached to his computer, which is a criminal offense.
“What we see in these cases that there is more than just one form of abuse taking place during the communication. Real kids are being victimized in this way all the time and we’re very fortunate to have caught another abuser,” Evans said.
Burk, who is single with no children, was arraigned Monday on charges of Illegal Use of the Internet to Accost & Solicit a Child for Immoral Purposes and Distributing Obscene Material to a Minor – both 10-year felonies. He is being held at the Wayne County Jail on $75,000 cash bond. Burk also faces likely additional charges in Ypsilanti for possession of child pornography.
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