Kalispell man faces child sex abuse charge in Great Falls

A Kalispell man faces a porn charge in Great Falls after allegedly being caught obtaining nude pictures from a 12-year-old Great Falls girl on Facebook.

Michael Selders, 20, is charged with sexual abuse of children. Under Montana law, people convicted of the charge when a victim is younger than 16 face a minimum four-year and maximum 100-year prison sentence.

According to charging documents, Cascade County Sheriff’s Office detectives obtained access to the girl’s Facebook account while investigating another sex crime case and found that she had also exchanged messages with a person who they identified as Selders.

Selders, under the name Michael Merganthaler, allegedly exchanged 700 messages with the girl in the first half of May, asking her for “nude picks” and telling her she needed to send “picks” to him so he could trust her.

After the girl sent several sexually provocative images, Selders allegedly threatened to post them publicly if she didn’t do what he wanted.

A detective posing as the girl initiated another conversation with Selders through her Facebook account and obtained his cellphone number, documents say. The detective then exchanged messages with Selders where he requested more explicit photographs and asked the girl if she could travel to Kalispell.

When the detective asked if “ur cool with me being 12,” Selders allegedly replied “yupp, No its just if you ok wit it and if my mom or anyone sees you your 17 or 18.”

Selders was arrested in Kalispell and is being held at the Cascade County Detention Center. He was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Great Falls Thursday, and prosecutors have requested he be held on a $100,000 bond.

Reach Staff Writer Eric Dietrich at 791-6527 or edietrich@greatfallstribune.com. He can also be followed on Twitter at @GFTrib_EricD.