Caledonia man pleads guilty to sexual exploitation
Scott Michael Elam, 41, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to a Wednesday release from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Michigan. He could face anywhere from 15 to 90 years in prison, attorneys say.
Deputies: Caledonia man offered teens alcohol for sex
According to a federal indictment, Elam recorded himself and one minor engaging in sexual acts and also persuaded minors to create pornographic images and send them to him.
He was charged in Nov. 2024 with seven counts of sexually exploiting four different minors. Court documents say Elam recorded himself engaging in sexual acts with one of the minors two different times. Attorneys also say he told other victims to take explicit photos and videos and send them to him. He allegedly gave minors alcohol, marijuana, vapes and 'other contraband,' giving discounts for minors who sent sexually explicit videos to him or had sex with him, attorneys say.
Caledonia man faces federal sexual exploitation charges
'Mr. Elam's abhorrent criminal acts against minors are utterly indefensible, and such behavior is not acceptable,' wrote Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan. 'I am deeply grateful for the relentless dedication and tireless efforts of the men and women of the FBI in Michigan, including the West Michigan-based Child Exploitation Task Force (WEBCHEX), our partners at the Kent County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the successful prosecution in the Western District of Michigan.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Intercept
19 minutes ago
- The Intercept
ICE Agent Caught on Camera Disguised as a Construction Worker
Despite their proclivity for wearing masks, the Department of Homeland Security denies that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refuse to identify themselves in the field. 'I've been on a number of these operations,' Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said last month. 'They are wearing vests that say ICE or ERO, which is the enforcement arm of ICE or Homeland Security Investigations. They clearly verbally identify themselves.' But video from a confrontation in a New York state town that was reviewed by The Intercept contradicts her claims. In the footage, Juan Fonseca Tapia, the co-founder and organizer of the Connecticut-based immigrant advocacy group Greater Danbury Unites for Immigrants, questions a man dressed as a construction worker. 'What agency are you with?' asks Fonseca Tapia, filming through his car window. 'I'm not going to tell you,' responds the man, who is wearing a high-visibility construction vest, an orange helmet and glasses, with a camouflage mask covering most of his face. 'It's none of your business.' The construction worker getup was actually a disguise — ICE confirmed to The Intercept that the man in the hard hat is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. 'ICE New York City officers were conducting surveillance in Brewster, New York, August 2, when anti-ICE agitators followed them and attempted to disrupt their operation,' an ICE spokesperson told The Intercept by email. In the video – which was posted last weekend on social media by Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants – the ICE agent said only that he is a member of 'federal law enforcement.' Neither 'ICE' nor 'ERO' is visible on his vest in the footage. That puts the lie to McLaughlin's claims that ICE agents identify themselves. Fonseca Tapia told The Intercept that he spotted a second man who was similarly disguised as a construction worker. 'I find it outrageous. It's indefensible. This is where we are crossing a dangerous line on immigration enforcement into these paramilitary type tactics with a secret police force,' said New York State Senator Patricia Fahy who last month introduced the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act which would ban the use of face coverings and plainclothes by ICE and other federal enforcement agents during civilian immigration actions conducted in New York State. 'The first three words of the provision that we're adding into law are 'Masks and disguises prohibited,' period. And this video is Exhibit A. This is exactly what we are alarmed about.' On Tuesday, at a National Conference of State Legislators in Boston, Fahy joined colleagues from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in condemning the use of 'paramilitary-type secret police' tactics by ICE agents. 'We started to reach out to all the states that have legislation concerning masked ICE agents and said, 'Let's do this jointly. Let's collectively bring attention to this,'' Fahy told The Intercept. 'We had a couple of dozen lawmakers all standing up to say 'This is not who we are' and calling out these authoritarian-type tactics.' The interaction with the disguised construction worker began when Fonseca Tapia spotted a group of people he believed to be ICE agents in downtown Brewster. He began alerting day laborers who congregate in the area, while driving in his car. Soon, Fonseca Tapia said, realized that he was being followed in a vehicle by the man in the construction worker get-up. Eventually, he found himself surrounded by several vehicles with dark tinted windows. Fonseca Tapia said that the man in the construction worker disguise confronted him and repeatedly tried to persuade him to roll down his window or get out of the car. He said he feared that he might be 'kidnapped' by ICE. After Fonseca Tapia stopped filming, he said that the masked agent issued a warning: 'More of my guys are coming and we're going to take care of you.' To Fonseca Tapia, that sounded like an act of intimidation. 'It's literally a threat,' said Fonseca Tapia. 'You have three vehicles with very tinted windows, so it's impossible to see inside. People are wearing masks and refuse to identify themselves and one of them tells you he is going to call more of them to 'take care of you?' This is for sure an intimidation tactic to instill fear in people who are working to alert the community when there is an ICE presence.' 'It's undermining all of law enforcement because they come across as impersonators.' An ICE spokesperson cited 'increased assaults toward ICE,' as the reason that the ICE agent confronted individuals who followed and filmed them in Brewster. 'The officer was concerned for the safety of himself and others,' the spokesperson wrote. 'I don't know what the concern was — because he was following me,' said Fonseca Tapia. 'If he thought I posed a threat, I don't think he would put himself in danger by following me.' Since President Trump's return to office, masked ICE agents carrying out immigration raids have become increasingly common. Across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies working with ICE, launch operations wearing disguises or plainclothes and sometimes arrive in unmarked vehicles and arrest people without warrants. Often ICE agents don masks, balaclavas, neck gaiters or other facial coverings to conceal their identities. Lawmakers, veteran law enforcement officials, activists, and citizens have criticized the donning of masks by law enforcement as anti-American and for sowing confusion, chaos, and fear, while reducing accountability and undermining public trust. 'The failure of ICE officers and agents to promptly and clearly identify who they are and the authority under which they are acting has led witnesses of immigration enforcement operations to justifiably question the law enforcement status, authority, and constitutionality of ICE officers and agents and their operations,' wrote U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in a May letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, the Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, and top ICE officials. 'We remain deeply concerned that ICE's lack of transparency will lead the public to intercede in enforcement efforts, escalating an already tense interaction, and risking an entirely avoidable violent situation.' Fahy emphasized that she had a family member who served in law enforcement and that she saw the use of masks and disguises as a threat to law and order. 'It's undermining all of law enforcement because they come across as impersonators. There's no accountability and there's no transparency, so it erodes public trust and undermines decades of work and millions of dollars spent,' she told The Intercept. 'When they use disguises, these arrests – without presenting an arrest warrant, neither a judicial or even administrative warrant – come across as abductions or kidnapping. These are third-world tactics, and they should shock the collective conscience.' Read Our Complete Coverage The International Association of Chiefs of Police warns that 'members of the general public may be intimidated or fearful of officers wearing a face covering, which may heighten their defensive reactions.' An ICE spokesperson said the agency has no policy on masks, aside from pandemic safety requirements. The Department of Homeland Security has endorsed the agents' right to wear masks, citing attacks on agents or the doxing of law enforcement or their families. In an email, DHS specifically mentioned one Texas man's threat to shoot ICE agents as a reason to allow masks although it was unclear how a mask would protect an agent from a bullet. Nonetheless, DHS insisted that because of such fears, ICE would not discourage its agents from wearing masks during anti-immigrant raids. For almost two months, DHS has failed to respond to The Intercept's questions about escalating statistics quoted by government officials about supposed assaults of federal agents. In June, DHS told The Intercept that 'ICE law enforcement and their families are being targeted and are facing an over 400% increase in assaults.' ICE now claims that figure has jumped to 830 percent. ICE failed to answer The Intercept's questions about the use of disguises by ICE agents and if the agent who failed to identify himself in Brewster had been reprimanded. 'At no time did the officer attempt to make an arrest or detain anyone without being plainly marked as an ICE officer,' the spokesperson said. The New York City Bar Association has noted that secret police tactics are a gateway to further lawlessness. 'Allowing masked ICE agents to conduct detentions also makes it increasingly likely that third-party actors will impersonate federal agents and use their anonymity to subject vulnerable populations to harassment and violence under the apparent color of law,' the group said in a June statement. Bad actors have, indeed, masqueraded as ICE agents from coast to coast this year. Various people have reportedly impersonated ICE agents to commit or attempt robbery in Pennsylvania, kidnapping in Florida and South Carolina, scams in California, sexual assault in North Carolina, rape in New York, as well as acts of impersonation, intimidation and other offenses in California, Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Washinton State. In Congress, Democrats have introduced several bills, including the No Secret Police Act, which would bar federal agents from concealing their faces with 'home-made, non-tactical masks' and require law enforcement officers and DHS agents engaged in border security and civil immigration enforcement to clearly display identification and insignia when detaining or arresting people 'If you uphold the peace of a democratic society, you should not be anonymous,' saidRep. Adriano Espaillat, D-NY, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 'DHS and ICE agents wearing masks and hiding identification echoes the tactics of secret police authoritarian regimes – and deviates from the practices of local law enforcement, which contributes to confusion in communities.' An ICE spokesperson claimed the persons filming the agent in Brewster presented 'a safety concern for the officers, the community and even the agitators themselves' and that the 'ICE officer contacted the local police.' The Village of Brewster Police Department, however, told The Intercept that it did not take part in any such interaction. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office refused to entertain The Intercept's questions. 'We don't have somebody that would handle even communicating that to the press if it was even for the press's knowledge,' said a person who replied to a request for her name with 'No, thank you,' before hanging up. A message left for the department's civil affairs division was not returned. Fonseca Tapia said that personnel from both the Brewster Police Department and the Putnam County Sheriff's Office were called to the scene and spoke with him. 'This is a call to action for people to understand that this is wrong and this is not normal. Nobody is coming to save us. We are all we got,' Fonseca Tapia told The Intercept. 'Now is the time for action. People need to get involved because today it's immigrants' rights but who knows what group it's going to be tomorrow?'
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Former FBI official who worked with fired Acting Director speaks out on sudden dismissal
The FBI issued a series of sudden dismissals Friday with former Acting Director Brian Driscoll and FBI Washington field office head Steven Jensen as the most high profile firings. Former FBI Hostage Negotiation Team member and MSNBC national security and intelligence analyst Rob D'Amico, who worked alongside Driscoll, joins Alex Witt to share his insight on the matter.
American Press
an hour ago
- American Press
Trump placing Washington police under federal control, deploying National Guard
President Donald Trump is promising new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington including deployment of the National Guard, prompting the city's mayor to voice legal concerns about who would be patrolling the streets in the nation's capital. Trump said at a Monday news briefing that he was 'deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law order and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they're going to be allowed to do their job properly.' The Republican president compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others. 'We're getting rid of the slums, too,' Trump said, adding that the U.S. would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start. For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts. Combating crime The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime. Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard. About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday. More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn't immediately have a comment Monday morning. Focusing on homelessness Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washington's homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go. 'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump wrote Sunday. 'We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong.' Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option 'to extend as needed.' On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington. Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was 'ridiculous' and the city was 'unsafe,' after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency. The National Guard Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years. Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon. 'I just think that's not the most efficient use of our Guard,' she said Sunday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend,' acknowledging it is 'the president's call about how to deploy the Guard.' Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump's weekend posts depicted the district as 'one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.' For Bowser, 'Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.' Crime statistics Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago. Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday's announcement. The police department and the mayor's office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next. The president criticized the district as full of 'tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,' and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others. 'This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,' Trump said Wednesday. He called Bowser 'a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.'
