A federal judge in Michigan sentenced a New York man to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting an 11-year-old girl he met on Roblox. The case began with a phony identity in a children’s video game and finished with a Michigan State Police trooper knocking on the girl’s door. Ryan Dookhan, a security guard at an elementary school in New York, admits to sexually exploiting the youngster after grooming her for months and moving the conversation to a secondary messaging platform to prevent detection.
According to CBS Detroit, the girl met Dookhan on Roblox and played with him three or four times before their relationship escalated, according to court filings in the case. Dookhan instructed the girl to download JusTalk, which she did on her grandmother’s phone. The two then communicated via Roblox chat and the new platform. According to WZZM 13, Dookhan first posed as a small boy to trade digital pets with the girl before coercing her into downloading JusTalk. The transactions took place between June 10 and August 8, 2024.
According to court records, Dookhan threatened to take the girl from her parents if she did not comply with his sexually explicit demands, and the terrified youngster sent him a few images of herself. She also had sexual talks and exchanged explicit images to guys on Roblox and JusTalk, according to a court filing related to the September 2024 discovery in Petoskey, Michigan. A Michigan State Police trooper was dispatched to the girl’s house that same month after her family discovered the texts.
According to court records, law enforcement received Dookhan’s name and many photographs of his face throughout the chats. According to WZZM 13, Dookhan was eventually identified after sending 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, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, indicated he targeted the girl while employed to protect children at an elementary school. Homeland Security Investigations Detroit assisted Michigan State Police with the investigation that followed.
In December 2024, federal prosecutors charged Dookhan, and as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit the Samsung Galaxy smartphone that investigators determined was used to perpetrate the violation, according to WZZM 13. Dookhan lives in Jamaica, New York, and the case prompted authorities to follow his actions across state lines to find the victim in Petoskey.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan, Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou imposed the 360-month sentence in Lansing federal court. 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 upon 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. Dookhan received the full statutory limit. Because federal parole was eliminated by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Dookhan must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, or approximately 25.5 years, before being eligible for supervised release.
Homeland Security Investigations Detroit’s Jeremy Pierczynski said in a written statement that someone who was supposed to protect kids abused his position to prey on them, calling the treachery unforgivable. Pierczynski noted that Homeland Security Investigations is still committed to protecting children and holding offenders accountable.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan, Dookhan was prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to coordinate federal, state, and local agencies against child exploitation, including HSI and the FBI. The case follows a trend that investigators have identified in recent prosecutions: people using Roblox to establish trust with children before directing them to encrypted or ephemeral apps such as JusTalk, which are more difficult for parents and police to monitor.
The pipeline has come under increasing judicial scrutiny across the country. Hoodline previously reported that the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation merged dozens of federal claims against Roblox for failing to safeguard minors from predators into a single action in San Francisco federal court. The Oklahoma Attorney General filed a second lawsuit against Roblox, stating that the platform allowed adults to groom children before shifting chats off-app, while Florida officials subpoenaed Discord as part of an investigation into the same gaming-to-chat grooming cycle. Victims can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
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