Michigan – Michigan man will spend the next 30 years in federal prison after admitting to se*ually abusing a young child. A federal judge called the case “deeply disturbing and severe.”
According to U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey for the Western District of Michigan, Wayne Braun, 36, was given a 360-month prison sentence and then 120 months of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker gave the sentence and said the facts of the case were “truly egregious.”
The court records reveal that Braun admitted to accusations that came from actions he committed in July 2024. Braun stated in his plea that he made a video of himself se*ually abusing a youngster. Prosecutors said the youngster was too young to either understand or talk about the assault. Braun also said that after making the video, he shared it online.
At the sentencing, federal prosecutors stressed how severe the crime was and how it hurt the victims for a long time. VerHey added that Braun’s acts were a terrible betrayal and abuse of a helpless youngster, and he said that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated. He acknowledged his office and the agencies he worked with for their work in bringing the investigation to a close.
Law enforcement officials said the same thing. Jennifer Runyan, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the Detroit Field Office, stated that crimes against children are some of the worst and deserve the harshest penalty. She said that the sentence shows how serious Braun’s acts were and how much damage the online sharing of offensive material does to society as a whole.
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The FBI’s Marquette Resident Agency spearheaded the investigation, with help from the Michigan State Police, the Kingsford Department of Public Safety, and the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities added that evidence found throughout the case has already led to the identification and rescue of six other child victims from abusive conditions, as well as five new federal indictments and two arrests by state or local police.
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The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a federal Department of Justice program that started in 2006 to stop child sexual abuse and exploitation. The initiative pulls together federal, state, and local organizations to find victims, stop abuse that continues to occur, and punish the people who did it, especially when it happens online.
Wayne Braun is from Kingsford.