Anchorage man guilty of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A federal jury convicted an Anchorage man yesterday for attempting to meet with a child for sexual purposes.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between Aug. 29 and 30, 2025, August Seabrease, 40, used his cell phone to access various social media and messaging applications to chat with what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. Seabrease turned the conversations sexual, requesting the minor send explicit photos and discussing an in-person meeting for implied sexual purposes.

Throughout the conversation, Seabrease explicitly asked how old the minor was and she stated she was 13. In one message, he acknowledged that he was three times her age. Over the course of two days, Seabrease sent the person he believed to be a minor a photo of his genitalia and incessantly requested photos of the minor through messages. He specified "naughty pics," "sexy pics," "fresh pics," "more pics," and "right now."

Seabrease arranged to meet with the minor the following night at a mall in Anchorage. On Aug. 30, 2025, law enforcement observed Seabrease leave his home and drive to the local mall. He circled the mall parking lot several times before parking. Law enforcement contacted him shortly after to arrest him and seized his cell phone.

On Sept. 2, 2025, Seabrease was formally charged by criminal complaint and a federal grand jury indicted him roughly two weeks later. The federal jury found Seabrease guilty of one count of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor following a two-day trial.

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska, Special Agent in Charge Matthew Schlegel of the FBI Anchorage Field Office and Special Agent Timothy Weinhold, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 631 Commander made the announcement.

The FBI Anchorage Field Office and U.S. Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mac Caille Petursson and Michelle Delgado are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

###