COMMERCE TWP. (WWJ) -- Federal agents forced their way into a home in northern Oakland County on Tuesday to arrest a man accused of cyberstalking and threatening a social media influencer.
Several Commerce Township residents called the WWJ Newsroom to report a heavy police presence in their neighborhood, in the area of Commerce and Sleeth roads, where the FBI and officers approached a house with guns drawn.
WWJ has since learned that the person taken into custody was 36-year-old Joshua Stilman, who is charged by federal authorities with cyberstalking and extortion.
He's accused of sending the victim, an adult woman, explicit private messages on Instagram — including AI-generated photos he created of her, where she appeared nude and engaged in sex acts.
When she ignored him, it's alleged that Stilman threatened to post the images publicly if she did not respond to him and "play along."
A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court detail vulgar messages allegedly sent by Stilman to the woman, referred to as Victim 1.
The docs show on March 5 of this year, the suspect messaged the victim: "I wish you'd respond to some of my questions. I really don't want to resort to posting things online. I have much more of you than you've seen. I'm really not trying to offend you either. I j--- off to you every day, I just want to know what you like. I'm not going to expect you to talk to me every day or even that often. But I want to know some naughty things about you."
The victim responded, according to the documents, "Don't threaten me."
Other messages detailed in the complaint are too explicit to include in this article.
The victim reported these incidents to authorities, and an investigation was launched — eventually leading the FBI to Stilman and his Commerce Township home.
The investigation found another woman — referred to Victim 2 in the documents — filed a police report several years ago after that Stilman allegedly posted pornographic videos of her without her consent on an adult website, according to the documents.
In Michigan, a felony cyberstalking charge can carry a prison sentence of up to five years, depending on aggravating factors, while extortion is punishable by up to 20 years.