Ann Arbor, Michigan Man Pleads Guilty to Coercion and Enticement of Minor

DAYTON—David Jeremy Zobel, 32, of Ann Arbor, Michigan pleaded guilty in United States District Court here today to one count of coercion of a minor for driving two minor females from Xenia to Toledo and engaging in sexual activity with both of them.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge of the Cincinnati Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Andrew G. Arena, SAC, of the Detroit Division of the FBI; and Xenia Police Chief Randy Person, announced the plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Walter Rice.

Zobel faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to 15 years in prison. Judge Rice will set a date for sentencing.

According to a statement of facts filed with Zobel’s guilty plea, he began a series of sexually explicit online chats with numerous minor females from around the country, including a 13-year-old from Xenia, in approximately December 2008. Over the next six months, Zobel used online chats and text messaging to persuade her to participate in sexual activities.

On June 2, 2009, Zobel exchanged a series of text messages from Michigan with the girl asking if she and one of her friends, who was 12, would “do ANYTHING [he] want[ed]?” if he helped them runaway from Ohio. Zobel drove to Xenia, picked up the two minor girls and drove them to a parking garage in Toledo. He had each girl perform oral sex on him, took photographs of the girls posing either in their bras or with their bare breasts exposed. Mr. Zobel then left the girls in the parking garage, giving them each $20.

FBI agents arrested Zobel in Ann Arbor on June 12, 2009. He has been in custody since his arrest.

Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by FBI agents and Xenia police officers, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Tabacchi, who is prosecuting the case.