Seacoast bus driver allegedly threatened boy to provide pictures, stalked family
Aug. 9—CONCORD — A Seacoast-area bus driver coaxed an 8-year-old to take inappropriate pictures of himself by claiming a team of as many as 800 people would come after him and his family unless he complied, according to documents filed in connection with the bus driver's arrest.
The documents detail elaborate steps allegedly taken by the bus driver — Michael Chick, 39, of Eliot, Maine — to prod a Greenland Central School student to take cellphones, keep them hidden, photograph himself and then return them to Chick.
At this point, Chick faces of single federal charge of interstate stalking, for which he was arrested Friday evening.
At a press conference Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Jane Young said the investigation is still in its early stages.
"We are still trying to determine the scope of conduct in this case, and we are here to provide whatever resources we can," said Young.
She said a hotline staffed by Homeland Security — 603-722-1751 — has been set up for people with additional information about Chick to call.
"We encourage any parent or child with information, if they've had any contact with Mr. Chick, that they believe is pertinent to this investigation to call," Young said. "We will go wherever the evidence takes us."
Young declined comment when asked if Chick had any prior charges against him.
According to a 21-page affidavit filed in connection with his arrest:
* Chick admitted to authorities that he visited the home of the 8-year-old boy as many as 10 times to walk around the house, though he denied doing so in order to collect the phones.
* He admitted placing GPS tracking devices on the cars of the boy's parents, which let him know they visited the Greenland police station.
* He threatened the boy on the bus several times.
Chick's threats invoked a team of people he said would harm the boy and his family, according to the affidavit. Chick positioned himself as an intermediary trying to protect the boy, but he told the boy he couldn't continue to give the team excuses. At one point, he told the boy the team followed him to his grandmother's house.
"So you understand what's going to happen if you don't do it? They're like this close," Chick told the boy one morning in May.
When police informed the family of Chick's activities, they made plans to install surveillance cameras at their home. When more details emerged, the family felt so unsafe they left their home.
Chick drove for First Student, an Ohio-based company that provides school bus services in many New Hampshire districts. According to the affidavit, Greenland school officials asked that he be assigned to a different route in early May.
They were concerned about some exchanges between Chick and the boy and his sister in April, but grew more concerned after Chick asked in May to attend the boy's Little League baseball game.
School administrators asked First Student that Chick be assigned to a different route, and the principal reported the family's concerns to the school resource officer.
Chick gave police an excuse — he wanted to take his nephew to a Little League game — and police told him to stay away from the boy.
Apparently, his route was not changed because communications continued between Chick and the boy on his bus.
In an email, a First Student spokesman said Chick no longer works for the company, and the company is taking the charges seriously. Spokesman Jay Brock didn't answer questions about the screening process or why Chick remained on the route, saying the investigation is active.
"Behavior such as this is completely unacceptable and at odds with what we stand for as a company," Brock said.
According to the affidavit, the boy was hesitant to speak openly to investigators. For example, during an early July interview, he only told police he spoke to Chick once on one of the phones that Chick gave him. On July 26, he told police that Chick gave him three cellphones, but he responded to most questions with "I don't know" or "I don't remember."
But on Friday, the day that Chick was arrested, he told his parents about "The Team." Chick told him "The Team" had between eight and 800 members and was making threats against the boy and his family.
"If (the boy) did not meet their demands, 'The Team' would go to 'Plan B,' which would result in (the boy) being kidnapped and tortured," the affidavit reads.
But the boy did not disclose the nature of the demands, only that Chick wanted him to make a video and "The Team" liked clothing and underwear.
More evidence was obtained in written messages that police confiscated in a Aug. 2 search of the Eliot home where Chick lives with his mother. The messages, apparently shown to the boy on the bus, included:
* "$1,000 per week is what is keeping your family alive and together and I am running out of money."
* "Good job, you were great last night. Thank you. You saved yourself. Would have taken you away on Friday."
* Another included instructions about what to wear and detailed directions for taking body selfies. Extra credit is provided for "video of anything you would consider naughty."
* Another said to wrap the phone in underwear, place it in a zipper plastic bag, put it in a lunch box and drop it from the bathroom window of the family home.
* Another said to keep secrets from parents, teachers and police or the message's recipient and his family would be killed.
The investigation included surveillance audio and video recordings of conversations between the boy and Chick on the bus. T-Mobile records show nearly three dozen phone calls between the two.
Chick appeared before a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court on Monday afternoon. The judge ordered him jailed until a hearing Aug. 18 to consider his further detention before trial. His public defender, Behzad Mirhashem, had no comment.
The investigation involved Greenland police, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Maine Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
