By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
NEWPORT, N.H. ― A Wisconsin man was arrested and charged with six felonies related to child exploitation crimes involving two minors from Newport, coming less than a month after a Tennessee man was charged for involvement with the same victims.
Michael Brandon Shu, 24, of Beloit, Wisconsin, was arrested by the Beloit (WI) Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force on a Newport Police Department warrant. He faces the following charges:
– Manufacture of Child Sexual Abuse Images – Special Class Felony
– Conspiracy to Commit Manufacture of Child Sexual Abuse Images – Special Class Felony
– Trafficking in Persons – Class B Felony
– Indecent Exposure and Lewdness – Class B Felony
– Certain Uses of Computer Prohibited – Class B Felony
– Endangering the Welfare of a Child – Class B Felony
Shu is being held without bail as a Fugitive from Justice in the state of Wisconsin pending extradition back to New Hampshire to face the felony charges above.
While no additional arrests are expected from this case or from the state of New Hampshire, authorities say this is just the “tip of the iceberg,” as other victims and suspects have been identified across the country.
“It was like a big onion where you peel back layers and find more and more things,” Detective Sgt. Alex Marvin said. “As we got into the initial social media account on the first round of warrants, we started finding more information.”
This included more usernames and people involved, which led to search warrants on other accounts. Marvin said this led to “more and more” discoveries.
“These were the same two victims here in Newport, but we have identified numerous other victims across the country,” Marvin said. “The investigation is continuing with the help of the FBI and Lincoln Police Department Cyber Lab.”
Marvin said the help of the Cyber Lab has been integral, as they have highly trained investigators who have been able to assist in executing a search warrant and give guidance throughout the investigation.
“Their willingness to offer resources has really helped this case come together,” Marvin said.
Newport Police arrested Jacob Isaiah Haun, 20, of Johnson City, Tennessee, on April 17 after they became aware that two 14-year-old juveniles in Newport were being solicited by him online. At first his identity was unknown, but this information was found through a typical child welfare investigation through the school and/or DCYF, according to Chief Stephen “Alex” Lee, who spoke to the Eagle Times following the arrest.
Investigators conducted witness reviews and gathered forensic evidence, and also executed search warrants for social media providers, internet service providers and wireless telephone providers.
Investigators from Newport and the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office then traveled to Johnson City to arrest Haun.
The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office recently hired former Hanover detective Eric Bates, and deputized Eric James and Justin Coombs, who were able to assist Newport Police. Bates is known to be an expert in internet crimes against children, as explained during the announcement of his hiring by Sheriff Jayson Almstrom last month. They were able to go to Tennessee, along with a K-9 named Watson, to assist in the arrest and investigation.
Haun had a probable cause hearing in 5th Circuit Court – District Division – Newport on May 8, and is being held without bail.
The Newport Police Department is an affiliate agency of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Through the ICAC Task Force, Newport Officers were assisted in this investigation by the Sullivan County (NH) Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln (NH) Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Johnson City (TN) Police Department.
Shu’s arrest was handled by federal authorities rather than state, Marvin said. He explained that Shu was arrested on the Newport warrant and held without bail on the Fugitive from Justice out of the state of New Hampshire. When someone is arrested in another state for a New Hampshire warrant, they will be charged with being a Fugitive from Justice, which is a placeholder to hold him on the warrant.
“He is going through the extradition proceedings right now, and as long as it is deemed that he is extraditable he will be brought back to New Hampshire like Mr. Haun was,” Marvin said.
While the two suspects were discovered from the same case, Marvin said there is no evidence to suggest that Haun and Shu knew each other.
Marvin said work is underway to identify other victims and find relevant jurisdictions to charge those outside of the state of New Hampshire.
“We have jurisdiction to charge both of these suspects, but now we’re talking about victims from all these other states,” Marvin said. “Now it is determining on whether those states will charge for each victim or if there will be a global federal case.”
Marvin said that there has been a massive amount of information uncovered already, with each social media account having about a terabyte of data with tens of thousands of messages. Authorities now need to go through the messages to find which ones are relevant to any case.
“While this case has been extremely extensive thus far, we’re still really early on and there will be a lot more that comes out of this.”
Anyone with information about this investigation is encouraged to contact Sergeant Alex Marvin at [email protected] or 603-863-3232.
