Michigan Man Charged With Attempted Online Enticement Of An 11-Year Old Child

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the filing of a criminal complaint charging William Isaak Sparks (23, Kalamazoo, Michigan) with using a cellphone to attempt to entice a child to engage in sex acts. If convicted, Sparks faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 10 years, up to life, in federal prison. 

According to the complaint, an FBI special agent was conducting an online undercover investigation designed to identify and target adults who were seeking sexual activity with children. The undercover agent, posing as the parent of an 11-year-old girl, made contact with Sparks in a chat group on a social media app. Sparks offered to travel from Michigan to Florida for the purpose of sexually exploiting the “child.” The undercover agent asked Sparks if he had experience with “young” to which Sparks responded “Yes . . . 12 and 13” and claimed that these sexual encounters with children had happened “a couple of months ago[.]” Sparks provided his cellphone number to the undercover agent, distributed to the undercover agent two videos of children being sexually abused, and offered to send an explicit video of himself. Via text message, Sparks continued to make arrangements to travel to Florida.

The undercover agent again encountered Sparks in a chat room on May 21, 2024. In that conversation, Sparks again offered to travel to Florida to sexually abuse the 11-year old “child.” Sparks provided his true name to the undercover agent so that the agent could book a bus ticket from Michigan to Florida for Sparks.

The undercover agent later learned that on May 24, 2024, Sparks had been arrested by the Michigan State Police after information was provided by a private citizen that Sparks was attempting to engage in sex acts with a purported 11-year-old child in Michigan. Sparks was arrested after he showed up a condom and $45 in cash expecting to sexually abuse the purported 11-year-old child in Michigan.

A complaint is merely a charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Michigan State Police, and the Township of Kalamazoo Police Department.  It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor.

This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.