CONCORD – An Eliot, Maine, man was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Concord for cyberstalking an 8-year-old boy, U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces.
Michael Chick, age 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Landya McCafferty to 9 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release. On February 1, 2024, Chick pled guilty to one count of cyberstalking stemming from his course of conduct targeting an 8-year-old child who was a student on Chick’s school bus route.
“Michael Chick’s crimes caused unimaginable pain and fear for the survivor and his family. It is only because of their bravery and diligence that the defendant’s crimes were uncovered,” said U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young. “While Michael Chick’s incarceration will not erase the trauma he inflicted, it will hopefully provide some measure of justice for the survivor and his family.”
“Michael Chick used his access to children as a bus driver to manipulate a child, striking fear across multiple communities he worked. We cannot undo the pain Chick inflicted but we hope the end of this case marks a chance for a new beginning for those he harmed and a time to heal,” said Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New England.
Over the course of several months, Chick told the survivor elaborate lies about a secret organization that would harm the survivor and his family unless the survivor complied with certain demands. Chick harassed and intimidated the survivor, telling him that he would be kidnapped and tortured and his family murdered if he did not do as “the organization” directed. Chick gave the survivor several cell phones, directing the survivor to call Chick on the phones when he was alone.
Unbeknownst to the survivor and his family, Chick also followed and photographed them in public, placed GPS tracking devices on their vehicles, made surreptitious recordings of the survivor on the school bus, and went to the family’s home in the middle of the night, even taking photographs of the inside of their home through the windows. Chick used the information he collected to further harass and intimidate the survivor, manipulating the survivor into believing that the organization was watching and following him.
Homeland Security Investigations led the federal investigation. Valuable assistance was provided by the Greenland Police Department, the Eliot, Maine, Police Department, the Old Town, Maine, Police Department, New England State Police Information Network, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Massachusetts State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kasey Weiland is prosecuting the case.