ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A St. Louis man was sentenced to prison after admitting to sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl in 2016.
A federal judge sentenced Michael Bakale, 39, to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to coercion of a minor into an illegal sex act.
According to a press release from U.S. States Attorney Sayler Fleming, Bakale talked with a 15-year-old girl for six weeks until he convinced her to meet up. He then met her at a mall and took her to a hotel for sex.
Bakale also faces one count of second-degree sodomy in St. Louis County stemming from the same incident.
According to a search warrant from the Ellisville Police Department, an 18-year-old woman came to their detectives in 2019 to report a sexual encounter she had with Bakale at a motel in Chesterfield years earlier.
She told police she first started chatting with Bakale through the app Whisper before switching over to Snapchat. According to the search warrant, she showed screenshots of the chats, which police said were benign at first but quickly became sexual.
The search warrant said the girl told Bakale that she was 15 multiple times and offered to prove it, but Bakale said "that's not necessary why would I care?"
She told police they eventually met up at a motel near Chesterfield Mall where she performed a sex act on him, the search warrant said.
Police said the number associated with the Snapchat account matched that of Bakale, and the victim identified him in a photo lineup.
A court hearing for the charges out of St. Louis County is set for Oct. 28.
