A Lewiston man is facing 15 years behind bars for a gruesome crime.
COEUR D’ALENE – Michael Benjamin Hendren, 35, of Lewiston, Idaho, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison for attempted sexual exploitation of a child, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced today.
According to court records, as part of their efforts to combat exploitation of children online, investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) in Colorado ran undercover profiles pretending to be minors on a social media application in May of 2024.
A user, later identified as Hendren, initiated contact with two separate undercover investigators at JCSO during this time. In both conversations, Hendren repeatedly solicited sexually explicit materials from the purported minors and sent them sexually explicit images of himself.
The same month, Hendren chatted on the same social media application with an investigator from the Evesham Township Police Department in New Jersey, who also maintained an undercover social media profile on the application to combat online child exploitation.
In that chat, Hendren again attempted to persuade the purported minor to produce sexually explicit materials for him.
Hendren chatted with a fourth user, who was not an undercover law enforcement officer, on the same social media application. Hendren sent sexually explicit images of himself and attempted to persuade the user to produce sexually explicit images for him.
Following a thorough investigation, law enforcement identified the fourth user as a 15-year-old girl. They discovered that Hendren had engaged in sexually explicit conversations with several other purported children on the online messaging application.
Related Federal Cases
- Michael Hendren, Online Child Exploitation, Lewiston ID, 2023 · Washington
- Amgen Pays $71M for Pushing Drugs Off-Label · New Mexico
- Amgen Inc, Pharmaceutical Misrepresentation, California 2024 · New Mexico
- John Doe, Western Union Scam, California 2022 · New Mexico
- Ricardo Lujan, Cocaine and Methamphetamine Trafficking, California · Iowa
Key Facts
- State: Idaho
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
