Possible federal investigation puts Lenawee County child accosting case on hold

ADRIAN — Federal authorities may be investigating a Tecumseh man who's been charged by Lenawee County authorities with possessing child sexually abusive material and accosting a girl for immoral purposes.

Michael Timothy Bonica's attorney, Lenawee County Chief Public Defender John Glaser, told Lenawee County District Judge Todd M. Morgan of the possible federal charges in a hearing Tuesday. He asked for a 30-day adjournment in the state case so that they can learn if federal charges will be filed.

Morgan granted the adjournment after Assistant Lenawee County Prosecutor Amanda Wagner had no objection. Bonica's next county court date is Nov. 26.

As of Tuesday morning, nothing regarding Bonica had been filed in the federal courts' online records system.

This is the third adjournment of the probable cause conference in Bonica's case. He was taken into custody by Tecumseh police on Sept. 25 and formally charged Sept. 27.

Bonica, 44, is charged with two counts of aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material, one count of using computers to commit a crime with a maximum imprisonment of 10 to 20 years, one count of accosting children for immoral purposes, and one count of using computers to commit a crime with a maximum imprisonment of four to 10 years.

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Bonica appeared in court Tuesday by video from the Lenawee County Jail. He is being held on a $175,000 bond.

Tecumseh police arrested Bonica after a nonprofit group that identifies adults soliciting children for sex informed officers that one of its operatives had chatted with Bonica online while pretending to be a 14-year-old girl and that Bonica had shared photos of his face and genitals. The operative also learned he was a school bus driver. Tecumseh police reported finding at least one photo of a girl with exposed genitalia on a digital device they seized from Bonica.

Bonica is a bus driver for Clinton Community Schools , according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Tecumseh police with Lenawee County District Court. Without naming Bonica, the school district reported that one of its drivers had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Possible federal investigation puts Lenawee County child accosting case on hold