WARREN, Mich. – A Warren man tried to get a 9-year-old girl to send him nude photos after he met her through an online video game, officials said.
Timothy Leary Hazelett, 49, is named in a criminal complaint that was filed Oct. 6.
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WARNING: Some of the details described below are explicit and disturbing in nature.
Georgia girl meets man on video game
FBI officials in Macomb County said on Sept. 13, they received information from police in Cobb County, Georgia, about a 9-year-old girl who had had sexually explicit conversations with Hazelett.
The girl was interviewed by authorities on Dec. 28, 2021, and said she met Hazelett while playing the Oculus game “Rec Room.” She said he made sexual jokes and “said weird things.”
Hazelett and the girl eventually started to communicate through the Text Now application.
“Eventually, the suspect told the (girl) his name is Tim and asked her to send pictures of herself,” the criminal complaint says. “The suspect sent a picture of himself with his brother.”
The girl said based on rumors she had heard on Oculus, Hazelett had contacted 80 other children.
Once, while they were playing, Hazelett’s brother told the girl that she was pretty, according to officials.
The girl said she had sent Hazelett two photos of herself -- one in her pajamas and one of her and her dog. She told him that she was 12 years old, the complaint says.
Text messages
Cobb County investigators reviewed texts the girl had exchanged with Hazelett. They said she referred to him as “Dad,” and he referred to her by her Oculus name.
When the girl expressed frustration that she couldn’t visit her real father for the weekend, Hazelett replied, “u can come to my house for the weekend,” and, “I’ll let u drink lol,” court records show.
Officials said Hazelett brought up drinking on another occasion, when referencing a story the girl had told him in the past: “u remember how u told me when u get around Isabella and start drinking and ur clothes seem to come off and she video tapes u naked? I was extremely jealous of Isabella.”
Another time, Hazelett is accused of sending the girl a message that said, “When your old enough or feel grown up enough to share some pics with me.”
The criminal complaint includes the following Sept. 12, 2021, exchange between the girl and Hazelett:
- Girl: “you wanna go?”
- Hazelett: “what does that mean u asking me for sex?”
- Girl: “NO WHAT THE F--- YOU’RE LIKE 40 AND MY FATHER”
- Hazelett: “well if u ever change ur mind”
While they were joking about curse words on Sept. 13, 2021, Hazelett used a certain word that the girl said she dislikes. He responded with, “I’ll send u a pic of mine if u send me a pic of yours,” authorities said. The girl said she had seen enough of that, and Hazelett told her not to be shy, according to officials.
Child porn found during search
On May 2, 2022, officials traced the email for Hazelett’s account to a a home on Parshall Drive in Shelby Township. The home is registered to Hazelett’s relative, agents said.
Pictures of Hazelett from Facebook, his driver’s license, and a previous prison stint match the one that was sent to the 9-year-old girl, police said. His Facebook account has since been deleted, according to authorities.
A Michigan Department of Corrections parole agent told officials that Hazelett was living with his brother at a home on Chapp Avenue in Warren. The agent was supervising Hazelett after a 2008 conviction for sexual battery of a minor under the age of 12 in Florida.
Officials obtained a search warrant for the Warren home based on the likelihood that Hazelett was possessing, distributing, and receiving child pornography.
The search warrant was executed by FBI agents on Sept. 29. Hazelett was interviewed and admitted to owning the Text Now account that had been in communication with the 9-year-old girl, according to FBI officials.
A black iPhone 7 was seized from Hazelett’s bedroom, but he refused to reveal the password, authorities said. He had previously given agents the password for a cellphone they found on his person.
The Apple ID used for the iPhone 7 was the same one used to log into the Text Now account, the criminal complaint says.
Agents said they found at least 14 images of child pornography on the iPhone 7.
“Based on the volume of images on the iPhone, the review is ongoing,” the criminal complaint reads.
Officials described one image as showing a nude teenage girl. Another showed two girls wearing pajamas and a man touching one of the girls, police said. Another image showed a girl being raped by a man. The final image described in the complaint showed a nude girl being touched by a man.
Charges
The complaint concludes there’s probable cause that Hazelett knowingly accessed with intent to view material that contains an image of child pornography that has been shipped or transported in interstate commerce.