Lansing man sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on child porn charges

A Lansing man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison in connection with producing and receiving child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit announced.

Michael McShan, 28, was found guilty on multiple counts after a five-day trial last fall. The jury deliberated about an hour, federal officials said in a statement. 

Evidence presented during the trial showed that in December 2018, McShan met a 16-year-old girl on the “MeetMe,” social media site then started communicating with her through Snapchat, cellphone calls and text messages, according to the release.

The man "quickly began an abusive and sexual relationship" with the youth, authorities said. 

He persuaded her "to produce images and videos of herself and another minor female victim ... engaging in sexually explicit conduct," officials said.

The other victim was the teen's younger sister, according to a criminal complaint filed in March 2020.

"Over the course of a few months, McShan became increasingly controlling over (the victim)," authorities said Wednesday. "McShan coerced and enticed (the girl) through flattery, threats, and guilt to manipulate (her) into continuing to send him sexually explicit photos and videos as well as money."

Evidence also showed McShan ordered his then-girlfriend to write a false confession to the crimes in a bid to be released on bond pending his trial, investigators said.

“McShan’s horrific acts underscore the importance of talking with your children about the dangers of interacting with people they don’t know online,” said James C. Harris III, HSI Detroit acting special agent in charge. “Our agents along with our Border Patrol and DHS partners remain committed to bringing predators like McShan to justice, and providing care and support to the victims of these crimes.”

McShan was convicted of production of child pornography, attempted production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, coercion and enticement of a minor, and obstruction of justice.  

After release, he is slated to remain on supervised release for the rest of his life, federal officials said Wednesday.

“Protecting children from dangerous child predators is a top priority for our office,” U.S.  Attorney Dawn Ison said. “I commend our law enforcement partners for their hard work and dedication to investigating and prosecuting crimes against children.”

The case was investigated by HSI and U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the DHS Alliance Human Trafficking Task Force.

“I’m immensely proud of the collaborative effort between Border Patrol agents and HSI agents that led to the conviction of this man who committed heinous crimes,” said R. Alan Booth, chief patrol agent, Detroit Sector Border Patrol.

In a filing last week, David Burgess, the attorney representing McShan, sought a 15-year sentence.

McShan "has no prior felony convictions though he does have a history of physically abusing the women in his life. He has never had or even been charged with any sexually related offenses prior to this case," Burgess said. "There was no cache of child pornography recovered on any of the numerous devices seized in this case. In fact, the one video offered in this case was not even recovered from any of Mr. McShan’s devices."

Burgess noted his client has been in custody for more than two years, which allowed him "the appropriate time to not only properly reflect on his previous actions, but has allowed him to create the appropriate philosophy on how to conduct his life in the future to avoid this conduct from occurring again."