Man facing child porn charge hires examiner to clear him. It backfires, feds say
A Michigan orthodontist is accused of sexually exploiting children, including one as young as 12, over the course of several years, federal officials say.
Thomas Shannon, 43, formerly operated an orthodontic office in Grandville — a southwest suburb of Grand Rapids — but was recently arrested and could be facing up to 120 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan said in an Aug. 20 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to an attorney representing Shannon for comment, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
Authorities began investigating Shannon in January 2021, after a teenage girl in North Carolina told her therapist that, less than a week before, she had sent explicit images to a man through Snapchat in exchange for money, according to a criminal complaint filed Aug. 18. The therapist reported this to police, who got in touch with the girl’s family and, through their investigation, determined Shannon was the man requesting sexual content from the teen. 1
He first messaged her asking about her jewelry business, then said “I’d also buy other stuff that is super easy,” officials said, and began asking for pictures of her in a bathing suit or underwear. The requests quickly grew more bold and he kept pushing her to go further, according to court documents. Shannon also sent the girl a picture of himself, smiling, standing in front of a mirror at a gym.
Investigators said they identified and spoke with five victims with similar accounts of a man, Shannon, requesting explicit photos and videos, and in some cases encouraging them to make videos with other minors. The first, and youngest victim was 12 when Shannon contacted her in 2019, documents say.
In 2022, after accusations were brought against Shannon, he hired a private forensic examiner to search his electronic devices “in an attempt to prove that he did not possess any child pornography,” investigators said. But Shannon’s attempt to clear his name backfired, as the examiner found several images saved to his iCloud phone backup, and contacted the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, according to the criminal complaint.
Some of the photos featured teens, or pre-teens, investigators said, and another showed infants being sexually abused by an adult.
Even as Shannon was under investigation, he continued exploiting children, according to officials.
In June 2024, while out on bond after being charged in Kent County, investigators say Shannon was having explicit FaceTime calls with a 13-year-old girl in Maryland, while he was likely on board his yacht docked at Grand Isle Marina, in Grand Haven, the complaint read. Shannon was wearing a GPS tether at the time, which placed him in the area of the marina, and a screenshot from a FaceTime call matches one of the yacht’s bedrooms, investigators said.
Though Shannon was charged earlier at the state level, the federal charges against him are new.
He is facing five charges relating to the exploitation of minors, two carrying minimum five year sentences if convicted, and two others with 15 year minimums, according to federal officials. If he’s found guilty on all charges and given the maximum sentences for each, Shannon would be behind bars for 120 years.