A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a New York man to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting an 11-year-old girl he met on Roblox, in a case that began with a fake identity in a children's video game and ended with a Michigan State Police trooper knocking on the girl's door. Ryan Dookhan, who worked as a security guard at an elementary school in New York, admitted to sexually exploiting the child after grooming her over months and pushing the conversation onto a separate messaging app to avoid detection.
According to CBS Detroit, the girl met Dookhan on Roblox and played with him three or four times before their contact escalated, per court documents cited in the case. Dookhan told the girl to download JusTalk, and she used her grandmother's phone to install the app, after which the two continued communicating through both Roblox chat and the new platform. WZZM 13 reported that Dookhan initially posed as a young boy to trade digital pets with the girl before coercing her into downloading JusTalk, with the exchanges occurring between June 10 and August 8, 2024.
Per court filings, Dookhan threatened to take the girl from her parents if she did not comply with his sexually explicit demands, and the girl, who was scared, sent him a few photos of herself. She also engaged in sexual conversations and sent explicit photos to men on Roblox and JusTalk, according to a court filing tied to the September 2024 discovery in Petoskey, Michigan. A Michigan State Police trooper was called to the girl's home that same month after her family found the messages.
How a Polo Shirt Photo Cracked the Case
Law enforcement obtained Dookhan's name and multiple photos of his face from the conversations themselves, according to court documents. WZZM 13 reported that Dookhan was ultimately identified after he sent a photo of himself wearing a Challenge Charter School polo shirt while working as a security guard at the New York institution — a detail that, per the U.S. Attorney's Office, showed he targeted the girl while employed to protect children at an elementary school. Homeland Security Investigations Detroit helped Michigan State Police with the investigation that followed.
Federal prosecutors filed charges against Dookhan in December 2024, and as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit the Samsung Galaxy smartphone investigators determined was used to commit the offense, WZZM 13 reported. Dookhan resides in Jamaica, New York, and the case required investigators to track his conduct across state lines to reach the victim in Petoskey.
Maximum Sentence Under Federal Law
Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou imposed the 360-month sentence in Lansing federal court, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan, which noted that U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey sought and received the maximum 30-year sentence available under federal law for the single count of child sexual exploitation. Judge Jarbou also ordered Dookhan to register as a sex offender following his release from prison.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2251, producing or attempting to produce child sexual abuse material through enticement or coercion carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a statutory maximum of 30 years for a first offense, according to the U.S. Department of Justice — meaning Dookhan received the full statutory limit. Because federal parole was abolished under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Dookhan must serve at least 85 percent of his term, or roughly 25.5 years, before becoming eligible for supervised release.
Homeland Security Investigations Detroit's Jeremy Pierczynski said in a written statement that someone trusted to protect students abused that position to prey on them, calling the betrayal unacceptable. Pierczynski added that Homeland Security Investigations remains committed to protecting children and holding offenders accountable.
Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan said Dookhan's prosecution was carried out under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 that coordinates federal, state, and local agencies including HSI and the FBI against child exploitation. The case fits a pattern investigators have flagged repeatedly in recent prosecutions: adults using Roblox to build trust with children before steering them to encrypted or ephemeral apps like JusTalk that are harder for parents and police to monitor.
That pipeline has drawn escalating legal scrutiny nationwide. Hoodline previously reported that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated dozens of federal lawsuits accusing Roblox of failing to protect minors from predators into a single case in San Francisco federal court. The Oklahoma Attorney General separately sued Roblox, alleging the platform let adults groom children before moving conversations off-app, while Florida authorities have subpoenaed Discord as part of a probe into the same gaming-to-chat grooming pattern. The National Center for Missing or Exploited Children offers victim assistance at 1-800-843-5678.
