If the police have contacted you about CSAM (Child Sexually Abusive Material) in Bay City or anywhere in Bay County, what you do next could impact the outcome of your case. Before you answer any questions, consent to a search of your electronic devices, or try to explain your side, make sure you know your rights as explained on the page below.
Our CSAM defense attorneys know how these cases get built, because we used to build them.
We know how these cases are investigated, charged, and prosecuted because we used to be the prosecutors handling them. Before founding Blank Law, PC, we spent decades leading and prosecuting sex crimes cases in Michigan. Today, we use that experience to defend people whose futures are on the line.
An investigation into CSAM is usually weeks or months old before you learn it exists. When a detective calls or a warrant team arrives, they are not after your explanation. They are collecting evidence.
Do not answer questions. Do not agree to a search. Do not try to clear things up on your own. Talk to a defense attorney first.
Blank Law, PC defends people accused of sex crimes across Michigan, in state and federal courts. Our attorneys were the Chiefs of Sexual Assault Units as prosecutors before moving to the defense side. We know how these cases get built, because we used to build them.
Call Blank Law, PC, NOW at (248) 515-6583 for a free and confidential consultation.
More than one agency may already have touched your case: the Bay County Sheriff’s Office or the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Many cases begin with a Cyber Tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) after a technology company flags content or account activity as suspicious.
Allegations involving CSAM can have immediate consequences long before a case reaches a courtroom. Employers, licensing boards, schools, and professional organizations often respond to the allegation itself. Protecting your reputation is often just as important as protecting your legal defense.
People often try to fix this by being open with an employer or the detective. Those statements do not stay in one room. What you tell a licensing board can end up in a detective’s file, and what you tell a detective can end a career. Talk to us before you answer any questions about potential CSAM.
How did this start? In Bay County, the answer usually falls into one of four categories.
1. Reports from Technology Companies: Federal law requires online platforms like Google, Snapchat, and Dropbox to report suspected CSAM to NCMEC’s CyberTipline. Reports, which can include account details and IP information, are forwarded to Michigan law enforcement. A report starts an investigation; it does not prove a crime. Who was actually behind the account or device is a fight we start on day one.
2. Monitoring of File-Sharing Networks: Investigators run software that watches peer-to-peer networks for known files, then subpoena the internet provider for a name. File-sharing programs can upload on their own, in the background. Whether you knowingly shared anything is an element that the prosecution must prove, and it is where these cases are fought.
3. Reports from People Who Know You: A spouse in a difficult divorce. A roommate with access to a shared computer. A coworker who saw something, or believes they did. These cases often turn entirely on shared devices, shared cloud accounts, and who actually did what.
4. Undercover Online Operations: State and federal investigators, including Michigan’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force, work undercover in chat rooms and messaging apps, often known as Sting Operations. Cases that begin this way may draw federal attention. Many people say, “I didn’t know it was a police officer; I asked if they were a police officer, and they said, ‘No.’” Isn’t that enough to get a case kicked out of court? No, that is a misnomer. However, Undercover Online Operations run the risk of Entrapment. The only way to find out whether you have been a victim of Entrapment is to call Blank Law, PC, and allow us to review your case.
Michigan law defines CSAM broadly: images or video of anyone under 18, or material that appears to show a minor in sexual activity or other depictions that the statute prohibits. The legal fights center on how files got onto a device or account tied to you, who had access, and what the prosecution can prove you knew.
Michigan charges this conduct on three levels:
1. Possession. The most common charge. Up to 4 years, and up to 10 when aggravating facts are alleged, such as a video, more than 100 images, a prepubescent child, or sadomasochistic content.
2. Distribution. Sharing or making material available to others, even automatically. Up to 7 years, and up to 15 with the same aggravating facts.
3. Production. Creating, directing, or financing the material. Up to 20 years, and up to 25 with aggravating factors.
Sex Registry is also one of the pivotal penalties when being charged with any of these three offenses. Possession is a Tier I registry offense, which means you would be required to register for 15 years. Distribution and production are Tier II, 25 years.
Most Bay County CSAM cases stay in state court. Some do not. Federal prosecutors can pursue a case involving the distribution of large numbers of files. The major downfall of being charged federally is the fact that federal penalties are often significantly more severe. We have also tried cases where the Federal system moves forward with prosecuting what seems to be a very cut-and-dried fact scenario that seems to be more suited for the State to take on. Bay County sits in the Northern Division of the Eastern District of Michigan, so a federal case from this area is typically heard at the federal courthouse in Bay City. Both of our attorneys are admitted in the Eastern District.
During an investigation, you are usually the last person contacted before the detective’s investigation is complete. You may be contacted by a Bay City Public Safety detective, a sheriff’s investigator, a State Police detective, or a federal agent.
The police follow one approach. Your answer should too.
The First call, the one to our office, sounds the same almost every time. “A Detective just called me. He said he just wants to ask me a few questions. He said it would be quick. He said to come down to the station just to help him clarify a few things. He said it would be better if I cooperated. What do I do?”
Your response: Do not talk. Get a lawyer first.
Investigators are legally permitted to use deception during an interview. They may tell you they already know what happened, claim someone has identified you, or suggest they already have evidence they do not actually possess. These tactics are designed to get you talking. Too often, statements made before a lawyer is involved become the most damaging evidence in the case.
Give any investigator only this:
“I would like to speak to my attorney before I answer any questions. Please contact Blank Law, PC at (248) 515-6583.”
Put it in your phone. Give it to your family. Do not discuss the case with anyone but your lawyer; anyone else can be made a witness.
If officers come without a warrant and ask to come in or look at a device, that is a request, and you may refuse. Refuse politely and then call us. If they have a warrant, do not interfere, but do not volunteer help either. Refuse consent to anything beyond it, and do not voluntarily unlock a phone or give up a password. That battle belongs to your lawyer.
Treating your CSAM case like any other criminal case. CSAM allegations involve unique issues, including complex digital forensics, sex offender registration, and the possibility of harsh penalties. Experience in this specific area matters. Most criminal defense lawyers are general practitioners. One day, they’re handling a drunk driving case. The next day, it’s a domestic violence charge, a drug possession case, or a probation violation.
CSAM cases are different.
These cases require an understanding of digital forensic extractions, metadata, peer-to-peer networks, cloud storage systems, internet protocols, Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act, federal sentencing guidelines, and the unique constitutional issues that arise during computer and cellphone searches.
Not to mention, the consequences for CSAM cases in Michigan are devastating. They involve not only potential imprisonment, but registration on the Sex Offender Registry and potential loss of the use of your electronics. That pressure produces mistakes no lawyer can undo later.
The Top 5 Mistakes People Make:
1. Answering “just a few questions” without counsel.
2. Explaining yourself to an employer, school, or licensing board before your defense strategy exists.
3. Deleting files or wiping devices after police contact. It rarely works, and it can bring a separate tampering charge.
4. Treating this like any other criminal case. It is not. That is the one that you need to hire a defense attorney who knows exactly what to do when it comes to CSAM cases.
5. Hoping it will quietly go away. It will not.
1. Investigation. A warrant team takes everything the warrant allows: computers, phones, tablets, and consoles, for forensic imaging. People are often shocked to learn how much information can still be recovered after files have been deleted. Digital forensic examinations routinely uncover material users believed was gone forever.
But a device extraction does not settle who knowingly possessed a file. Browser caches and automatic downloads put files on devices the owner never saw, and an IP address points to an internet connection, not a person. Our forensic examiner pulls the raw extraction data rather than trusting the police summary.
The police have no time limit on how long this stage may take. This stage is a crucial part of the process. That means the best defense starts now. Call Blank Law, PC, immediately so we can get involved now.
2. Charging decision. Once the forensics are in, the Bay County Prosecutor’s Office or the U.S. Attorney decides what to charge. Michigan cases often add MCL 750.145d, using a computer to commit a crime: a Tier II registry offense whose sentence can run consecutive to the CSAM count. Before charging is final, we contact the detective, shut down interviews, identify other device users, and preserve evidence that helps you.
3. Court. State cases start at the 74th District Court, 1230 Washington Avenue, with arraignment, a probable cause conference, and the preliminary examination. On bindover, the case moves to the 18th Circuit Court in the same building. Federal cases are heard at the federal courthouse in Bay City. Expect bond conditions that reach your whole household: limits on internet and devices, no unsupervised contact with minors, sometimes a tether. We press for terms your family can live with.
4. Pretrial and resolution. We attack the forensic report, move to suppress statements taken in violation of your rights and searches that went beyond the warrant, and fight over what goes forward and in which court. Dismissal, reduction, trial: which one depends on the evidence, and we tell you where you stand from the first meeting.
1. Former leaders of major Michigan sex crimes prosecution units now exclusively defending individuals accused of sex offenses.
2. Nicole Blank Becker: 17+ years prosecuting sex crimes, Chief of the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit at the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.
3. Christopher Coyle: 28 years at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Unit.
4. A law firm focused exclusively on defending sex crime allegations throughout Michigan.
5. Admitted in the Eastern District of Michigan, where Bay County’s federal cases are filed.
As Chief of the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit in Macomb County, every sex-crime warrant request crossed Nicole’s desk. That experience provided a unique view into how these investigations are built, how charging decisions are made, and where mistakes can occur. In 2018, she founded Blank Law, PC to bring that insider knowledge to individuals facing some of the most serious allegations in the criminal justice system.
These cases require far more than general criminal defense experience. They demand a deep understanding of digital forensic evidence, Michigan and federal sentencing laws, and the complex rules governing sex offender registration. That is why sex crimes defense is all we do.
Our office is in Troy; we appear in Bay County’s courts and across Michigan. Investigators talk to us, not you. You stay silent while we work.
If you have been contacted by law enforcement, served with a search warrant, or believe you are under investigation for a CSAM-related offense in Bay City or anywhere in Bay County, do not wait for charges to be filed; contact us.
Call Blank Law, PC at (248) 515-6583 for a free and confidential consultation. The earlier we become involved, the more options we have to protect you, your family, and your future.
We are located on the Northeast corner of Big Beaver & Livernois in the Venture Plaza Office Building.
Fill out the contact form or call us at 248-515-6583 to schedule your free consultation.
