Eagle River man sentenced to 20 years for child exploitation offenses

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Eagle River man pleaded guilty and was sentenced today to 20 years in prison and will spend the rest of his life on supervised release for attempting to coerce a minor, and for receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography.

According to court documents, on Sept. 25, 2023, Michael Koetter, 30, sent a message to a commercial sex worker in Alaska, asking about finding girls under the age of 12 who had “rates,” which is described as prices for sex acts or sexually explicit images. Koetter’s intention with this request was to access a minor for the purpose of coercing them to engage in sexual activity. The sex worker reported the conversation to law enforcement.

The FBI executed a search warrant on Koetter’s person, vehicle and residence, and discovered multiple digital devices containing child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and conversations of child sexual abuse. The FBI seized a thumb drive that contained a file folder with roughly 72 subfolders holding over 1,400 files, many of which contained images and videos depicting child sexual abuse involving pre-pubescent minors as young as toddlers.

The thumb drive also contained two text files, one of which was labeled “Manifesto.txt,” where he described himself as a “hardcore child rapist” with a mission “to rape and molest as many children as [he] can before [he] die[s].”

The investigation determined that Koetter was convicted of possessing child pornography in Indiana in 2019, before he moved to Alaska “for a fresh start.”

Koetter pleaded guilty to one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

“Mr. Koetter is a recidivist sex offender who made the mistake of moving to Alaska and seeking another child to exploit. Now, he will spend the next 20 years behind bars and the rest of his life on supervised release,” said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska. “I want to thank the witness who came forward to report Mr. Koetter’s perversity, as that report and the hard work of our law enforcement partners has prevented the defendant from harming another child for the next 20 years.”

“Koetter, a repeat sex offender, committed disturbing child exploitation crimes across jurisdictions, and with a broader plan to continue sexually exploiting and traumatizing as many young children as he could,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Brandon Waddle of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “This investigation and sentencing represent the FBI’s commitment to ensuring sadistic child predators like Koetter are held accountable and removed from our communities. Our children are undeniably safer with him behind bars.” 

The FBI Anchorage Field Office investigated the case as part of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, with assistance from the Anchorage Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Alexander and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Brickey 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 CEOS, 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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