ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Tuesday sentenced a St. Louis man who had sexual contact with a 15-year-old he met online to seven years in prison.
Michael S. Bakale met the then-15-year-old girl via an app in 2016. Over roughly six weeks, their conversation grew sexual and Bakale suggested the two meet. On Oct. 2, 2016, Bakale picked her up from a local mall and took her to a motel, where they engaged in oral sex.
Bakale, 39, pleaded guilty in May to a charge of coercion of a minor into an illegal sex act. There is no statue of limitations for that crime.
Bakale also faces a pending felony charge of statutory sodomy in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The FBI and St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Collins prosecuted the case.
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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice 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 www.justice.gov/psc.