PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Donald Michael, aka “Baseball Fun,” 49, of Queen Creek, Arizona, was sentenced to 330 months in prison, 15 years of supervised release, and various financial penalties, including $137,933 in restitution to victims, by United States District Judge Mark A. Kearney for online child sexual exploitation. In addition, Michael is required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and Megan’s Law, as well as state law.
The defendant was charged by indictment in July 2024 with one count of conspiracy to manufacture child pornography, one count of conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, one count of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography, and two counts of receipt of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in April of last year.
As detailed in court filings and statements, Michael, who served as a baseball coach of minor boys for more than two decades, engaged in an online child exploitation catfishing scheme for over 18 months with co-conspirators Andrew Wolf, a former teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (“SCH”), and Kray Strange, of Carthage, New York, both of whom were previously convicted and sentenced.
Michael conspired with Wolf and Strange to target minor boys who were Wolf’s current and former students at SCH and to coerce and induce them to produce sexually explicit images and send them to the defendant and his co-conspirators over the internet. They did so by creating multiple fake online profiles where they pretended to be teenaged girls, engaging each of their victims in sexually explicit and graphic chats, and distributing child pornography to the minor boys, in an effort to get them to reciprocate with their own images.
When the boys refused to continue to engage, Michael and his co-conspirators used blackmail and extortion to manipulate them into continuing to produce images. After Wolf and Strange were arrested and incarcerated, this defendant continued his catfishing scheme by targeting and victimizing minor boys who were Little League World Series players.
“Cloaked in the anonymity that the internet provided them, Michael and his co-conspirators manipulated young boys into taking and sending explicit images of themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “These men are predators, plain and simple, and deserve every day of the lengthy sentences they’ve received. Protecting children from sexual exploitation will always be a priority for my office and our partners at the FBI.”
“The sexual exploitation and extortion of children remains one of the most devious crimes the women and men of the FBI investigate,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia. “This sentencing serves as a reminder how seriously the FBI and our partners take the online victimization of minors. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to protect young people from exploitation and ensure those who prey on them are brought to justice.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly Harrell and Michelle Rotella.