If you or someone you love is being investigated, or may be investigated, for a CSAM offense in Dearborn or anywhere in Wayne County, do not wait for charges to be filed before acting. The earliest stages of a case often matter the most. Early intervention can influence investigative decisions, charging determinations, and the overall direction of the case.
Let this be the first call.
Contact Blank Law, PC at (248) 515-6583 for a free, confidential consultation.
Our CSAM defense attorneys are here to help. That is all we do.
Dearborn is Michigan’s seventh-most populous city, with its own court and police department. A state case starts in the 19th District Court on Michigan Avenue and, if it survives District Court, moves to Circuit Court in Detroit; a federal case also takes place in Detroit.
The damage often begins before charges are ever filed. Employers frequently act on allegations long before the facts are sorted out, and statements made to supervisors, human resources personnel, or workplace investigators can ultimately find their way into a prosecutor’s file. Mistakes made early, whether in the workplace or in court, can follow a case from beginning to end.
Christopher Coyle, our senior trial attorney, spent 28 years with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, ultimately serving as Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Unit. Nicole Blank Becker, owner and trial attorney, also spent years in the prosecutor’s office in both Wayne and Macomb, ultimately becoming the Chief of the Sexual Assault Unit. For decades, they evaluated these investigations from the prosecution’s side, deciding which cases warranted charges and which did not. Today, that experience serves you, and it is most valuable when brought into a case at the very early stages of the case.
Most people are shocked by how these investigations begin. In many cases, law enforcement has been gathering information for weeks or months before anyone makes contact. In Dearborn, most CSAM investigations begin in one of four ways:
1. A Cyber Tipline Referral: When a platform like Google, Snapchat, or Dropbox gains actual knowledge of suspected CSAM, federal law requires a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC); most reports come from automated file-matching, not a person reading messages. The tip that reaches the Michigan State Police, Dearborn Police, or a federal agency carries account details and IP records, but it rarely settles who was behind the screen.
2. File-Sharing Surveillance: Software watches sharing networks for the fingerprints of known files, and a subpoena to the internet provider puts a subscriber name on a flagged connection. The subscriber and the user are not always the same person; some sharing programs upload automatically from a shared folder, and the prosecution still must prove a person knew it was happening.
3. A Device Search at Detroit Metro: Detroit Metro is a short drive away, and for many Dearborn families, international travel is routine. At the border, including the airport, Customs and Border Protection officers can search a traveler’s phone or laptop without a warrant; a deeper forensic search requires only reasonable suspicion and a supervisor’s approval. A customs search can produce a federal referral, often to Homeland Security Investigations, with no Cyber Tipline report anywhere in it. A device detained at Detroit Metro means federal attention. Get counsel immediately.
4. An Accusation from Your Own Household: A collapsing marriage. A relative who borrowed the laptop. A shared iCloud account nobody remembers setting up. Reports from people with access to your devices carry a built-in problem for the prosecution: access means opportunity for everyone who had it, not guilt for one.
However the accusations began, call us before you respond to anyone.
Michigan’s definition of Child Sexually Abusive Material includes depictions of anyone under 18 engaged in sexual activity or other conduct listed in the statute, and in some circumstances, material that appears to depict a minor. The charge does not rest on the file alone. The state must prove you knowingly possessed the material or knowingly sought it out and accessed it, and knowledge is usually where the fight is.
The statute separates CSAM offenses into three main categories, each carrying different maximum penalties:
Conviction brings Sex Offender Registry time too: generally, 15 years at Tier I for possession, generally 25 at Tier II for distribution or production.
A Dearborn case can be charged by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office or charged by the U.S. Attorney; cases born from a border search or an undercover federal operation tend to be federal from day one. Dearborn lies in the Eastern District of Michigan, so its federal prosecutions run through downtown Detroit, where the same conduct is often punished more severely. Both of our attorneys are admitted to the Eastern District. Which government holds the case is often unsettled early, exactly when a defense lawyer’s input matters.
Whether the call or visit comes from a Dearborn Police detective, a sheriff’s investigator, a Michigan State Police officer, or a federal agent, the badge may change, but the approach usually does not.
The call we receive afterward often sounds the same: “An officer just called me or showed up at my house. He said he only wanted to ask me a few questions. He said it would be quick. He said it would be better if I cooperated. What do I do?”
Nothing. You do not answer questions, and you call Blank Law, PC, first.
Here is what most people do not realize: investigators are allowed to use pressure, half-truths, and deception. They may tell you they already know what happened. They may claim someone else has implicated you. They may suggest that “cooperating” will make things better. But in a CSAM investigation, trying to talk your way out of the problem can create the very evidence the government needs. One poorly worded denial can be used as proof of knowledge.
Say one thing only:
“I would like to speak to my attorney before I answer any questions. Please contact Blank Law, PC at (248) 515-6583.”
Save it. Share it with your household.
When officers appear without a warrant, a search of your home or devices generally needs your consent, and you can decline it politely and then immediately call us. Officers with a search warrant do not need permission, but they are not owed help: read the document they give you, stay out of the way, consent to nothing further, and do not voluntarily unlock or hand over a password. Compelling a password is a contested question, and it is your lawyers’ to fight.
The consequences of a CSAM case in Michigan can be devastating. These cases carry the risk of prison, Sex Offender Registry requirements, and severe restrictions on access to electronics. Under that kind of pressure, people often panic, and the mistakes that follow tend to look the same from one case to the next:
1. Hiring the first lawyer who answers the phone instead of choosing a defense attorney who understands CSAM cases, forensic evidence, and the consequences these charges carry.
2. Agreeing to a “quick chat” at the station.
3. Deleting, wiping, or factory-resetting anything after police contact. It rarely solves the problem and can create a separate legal issue for you.
4. Answering an employer’s questions before a lawyer has reviewed the situation.
5. Treating investigators’ silence as good news and waiting to see what happens.
Investigation. The search warrant decides what leaves your house. Typically, the police are looking for: computers, phones, computer drives, and consoles. Forensics follows. Just because you believe you “deleted it” doesn’t mean they can’t find it. They can. What no extraction will prove by itself is whose hands were on the device, and in homes full of relatives, guests, and shared passwords; that question decides cases. Where the case calls for it, we have an independent examiner review the government’s forensic work for us, checking the prosecutors’ conclusions.
Charging decision. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office or the U.S. Attorney then chooses what charges to file. Wayne County charges often include an added Using a Computer to Commit a Crime count whose sentence a judge is allowed to run consecutively to the CSAM charge. The wait to get the results back from the forensic downloads often stretches months; most labs are backed up. Those months are important months for your defense team: review of the allegations, device history mapped; favorable facts are mitigated with the charging prosecutor in time to matter.
Court. The 19th District Court at 16077 Michigan Avenue handles Dearborn’s arraignments, bond hearings, probable cause conferences, and preliminary examinations. If the case survives those stages, it is bound over, meaning the district judge found probable cause, and the case lands at the 3rd Circuit Court inside Detroit’s Criminal Justice Center. Federal defendants answer at the federal courthouse downtown instead. At arraignment, bond conditions are set, which frequently reach the whole household: internet cut off, devices restricted, contact with minors limited, occasionally a tether. Every one of those terms can be contested, and we contest them.
Pretrial and resolution. This stage decides most cases: probing the forensic conclusions, moving to suppress statements taken in violation of your rights along with searches that went past the warrant, negotiating which charges go forward, and pressing for state court when federal adoption is on the table. Outcomes range from dismissal to reduction to trial, and we will be transparent and recommend what the evidence supports.
Attorney Nicole Blank Becker: 17 years prosecuting Michigan sex crimes, including the Chief of the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit in Macomb County.
Attorney Christopher Coyle: 28 years with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, including serving as Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Unit, now defending those accused in Wayne County and across Michigan.
Two former Chiefs of Sex Crimes and Sexual Assault units working together in one firm.
A defense practice focused exclusively on sex crimes.
Federal defense experience in the Eastern District of Michigan, where Dearborn’s federal cases are prosecuted.
When Nicole led the Sex Unit, every warrant request crossed her desk before charges were authorized. She saw firsthand what the police departments were looking for and how they brought their case. She founded Blank Law, PC in 2018 to bring real sex-crimes experience to the defense side of these cases. Too many lawyers take on these allegations without understanding what the work actually demands. CSAM defense requires fluency in forensic extraction reports, Michigan and federal sentencing guidelines, charging decisions, and the Sex Offender Registry’s rules. We don’t have a “General Criminal Defense” firm. This is not a side practice for us. It is the only work we do. Once we are retained, we work endless hours to get the results you deserve.
If you or someone you love is being investigated, or believes they may soon be investigated, for a CSAM-related offense in Dearborn or anywhere in Wayne County, make your first call to Blank Law, PC.
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Every situation is fact-specific, and outcomes depend on details that cannot be evaluated online. This page is for general information only. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Blank Law, PC. If you have been contacted by law enforcement, the only reliable next step is to speak with a defense lawyer about your specific situation.
Blank Law, PC | 3150 Livernois Road, Suite 126, Troy, MI 48083 | (248) 515-6583 | nicoleblankbecker.com
We are located on the Northeast corner of Big Beaver & Livernois in the Venture Plaza Office Building.
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